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M^^o/^/rs BY Wm. Elliot Griffis 



THE MIKADOS EMPIRE 

JAPANESE FAIRY WORLD 

COllHA, TftE HERMIT NATION 

MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY 
THE LILY AMONG THORNS 

HONDA, THE SAMURAI 

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 
JAPAN: IN HISTORY, FOLK-LORE, AND ART 
BRAVE LITTLE HOLLAND 

THE RELIGIONS OP JAPAN 

TOWNSEND HARRIS 



COEE A 



The Hermit Nation 



/ / 

,: I.— ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

f II.— POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COEEA 

i IIL— MODEEN AND RECENT HISTORY 



BT 



WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS 

rORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO, JAPAN 
AUTHOR OF " THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE " 



NINTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1911 






vV 



Copyright, 1882, 1888, 1897, 1904, 1907, 1911 
Bv CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 




©•C!.A2939i9 



/ /^& 



77 



TO 

ALL COREAN PATRIOTS: 

WHO SEEK 

BY THE AID OP SCIENCE, TRUTH, AND PURE RELIGION, 

TO ENLIGHTEN 

THEMSELVES AND THEIR FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, 

TO RID 

THEIR LAND OP SUPERSTITION, BIGOTRY, DESPOTISM, AND 
PRIESTCRAPT— BOTH NATIVE AND FOREIGN— 

AND TO PRESERVE 

THE INTEGRITY, INDEPENDENCE, AND HONOR, OP THEIR COUNTRY; 

THIS UNWORTHY SKETCH 

OP 

THEIR PAST HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION 

IS DEDICATED. 



PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION 



The year 1910 saw the Land of the Plum Blossom and the 
Islands of the Cherry Blooms united. In this ninth edition of a 
work which for nearly thirty years has been a useful hand-book 
of information — having, by their own unsought confession, in- 
spired not a few men and women to become devoted friends and 
teachers of the Corean people — I have made some corrections and 
added a final chapter, *'Cho-sen: A Province of Japan." Be- 
sides outlining in brief the striking events from 1907 to 1911, I 
have analyzed the causes of the extinction of Corean sovereignty, 
aiming in this to be a disinterested interpreter rather than a mere 
annalist. 

Although the sovereignty of Corea, first recognized and made 
known to the world by the Japanese ni their treaty of 1876, has 
been, through the logic of events, destroyed, 1 doubt not that the 
hopes of twelve millions of people will be increasingly fulfilled 
under the new arrangement. Not in haste, but only after long 
compulsion, did the statesmen of Japan assume a responsibility 
that may test to the full their abilities and those of their successors. 
The severe criticisms, in Japan itself, of the policy of the Tokio 
government bear witness to the sensitiveness of the national con- 
science in regard to the treatment of their colonies. In this re- 
spect, as in so many other points of public ethics, the Japanese 
are ranging themselves abreast with the leading nations that are 
making a world-conscience. 

In sending forth what may be the final edition of a work, with 
the title of which time has had its revenges, while the contents are 
still of worth, the author thanks heartily all who, from 1876, when 
the work was planned, until the present time, have assisted in 
making this book valuable to humanity. 

W. E. G. 
Ithaca, N. Y., June 27, 1911. 



PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITIOI^. 



Whek in October, 1882, the publishers of " Corea the Hermit 
Nation ^' presented this work to the public of English-speaking 
nations, they wrote : 

" Corea stands in much the same relation to the traveller that 
the region of the pole does to the explorer, and menaces with the 
same penalty the too inquisitive tourist who ventures to penetrate 
its inhospitable borders." 

For -twenty-four - years, this book, besides enjoying popular 
favor, has been made good use of *by writers and students, in 
Europe and America, and has served even in Corea itself as the 
first book of general information to be read by missionaries and 
other new comers. In this eighth edition, I have added to the 
original text, ending with Chapter XLVIII (September, 1882), five 
fresh chapters : on The Economic Condition of Corea ; Interna- 
tional Politics : Chinese and Japanese ; The War of 1894 : Corea an 
Empire ; Japan and Russia in Conflict ; and Corea a Japanese Pro- 
tectorate, bringing the history down to the late autumn of 1906. 

Within the brief period of time treated in these new chapters, 
the centre of the world's politics has shifted from the Atlantic and 
the Mediterranean to the waters surrounding Corea, the strange 
anomaly of dual sovereignty over the peninsular state has been 
eliminated, and the military reputation of China ruined, and that 
of Russia compromised. The rise of Japan, within half a century 
of immediate contact with the West, to the position of a modern 
state, able first to humiliate China and then to grapple success- 
fully with Russia, has vitally affected Corea, on behalf of whose 
independence Japan a second time went to war with a Power 
vastly greater in natural resources than herself. In this period 



Vlll PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. 

also, the United States of America has become one of the great 
Powers interested in the politics of Asia, and with which the 
would-be conquerors of Asiatic peoples must reckon. 

The present or eighth edition shows in both text and map, not 
only the swift, logical results both of Japan's military and naval 
successes in Manchuria and on the sea of Japan and of her signal 
diplomatic victory at Portsmouth, but more. It makes Clear the 
reasons why Corea, as to her foreign relations, has lost her sov- 
ereignty. 

The penalty laid upon the leaders of the peninsular kingdom 
for making intrigue instead of education their work, and class in- 
terests instead of national welfare their aim, is also shown to be 
pronounced — less by the writer than by the events themselves — in 
the final failure of intriguing Yang-banism, in May, 1906. The 
Japanese, in the administration of Corea, are like the other pro- 
tecting nations, British, American, French, German, now on a 
moral trial before the world. 

In again sending forth a work that has been so heartily wel- 
comed, I reiterate gladly my great obligations to the scholars, 
native and foreign, who have so generously aided me by their con- 
versation, correspondence, criticism, and publications, and the 
members of the Korean Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, who 
have honored me with membership in their honorable body. My 
special obligations are due to our late American Minister, H. iN". 
Allen, for printed documents and illustrative matter ; to Professor 
Homer B. Hulbert, Editor of The Korea Review^ from the pages 
of which I have drawn liberally, and to the Editor of The Japan 
Mail, the columns of which are rich in correspondence from 
Corea. I would call attention also to the additions made upon 
the map at the end of the volume. 

I beg again the indulgence of my readers, especially of those 
who by long residence upon the soil, while so thoroughly able to 
criticize, have been so profuse in their expression of appreciation. 
Erom both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific have come these grati- 
fying tokens, and to them as well as to my. publishers, I make 
glad acknowledgments in lending forth this eighth edition. 

W. E. G. 

Ithaca, N. Y., December 12, 1906. 



PEEFAOE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



In the year 1871, while living at Fukui, in the province of 
Echizen, Japan, I spent a few days at Tsuruga and Mikuni, by the 
sea which separates Japan and Corea. Like " the Saxon shore " of 
early Britain, the coast of Echizen had been in primeval times 
the landing-place of rovers, immigrants, and adventurers from the 
continental shore opposite. Here, at Tsuruga, Corean envoys had 
landed on their way to the mikado's court. In the temple near by 
were shrines dedicated to the Corean Prince of Mimana, and to 
Jingu Kogo, Ojin, and Takenouchi, whose names in Japanese tra- 
ditions are associated with "The Treasure-land of the West." 
Across the bay hung a sweet-toned bell, said to have been cast in 
Corea in a.d. 647; in which tradition — untested by chemistry — 
declared there was much gold. Among the hills not far away, 
nestled the little village of Awotabi (Green Nook), settled centuries 
ago by paper-makers, and visited a millenium ago by tribute- 
bearerSj from the neighboring peninsula ; and famous for produ- 
cing the crinkled paper on which the diplomatic correspondence 
between the two nations was written. Some of the first families in 
Echizen were proud of their descent from Cho-sen, while in the 
villages, where dwelt the Eta, or social outcasts, I beheld the de- 
scendants of Corean prisoners of war. Everywhere the finger of 
tradition pointed westward across the waters to the Asian main- 
land, and the whole region was eloquent of "kin beyond sea." 
Birds and animals, fruits and falcons, vegetables and trees, farmers' 
implements and the potter's wheel, names in geography and thing- 



X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

in the arts, and doctrines and systems in religion were in some way 
connected with Corea. 

' The thought often came to me as I walked within the moss- 
grown feudal castle walls — old in story, but then newly given up 
to schools of Western science and languages — why should Corea be 
sealed and mysterious, when Japan, once a hermit, had opened her 
doors and come out into the world's market-place ? ^ When would 
Corea's awakening come? As one diamond cuts another, why 
should not Cho-ka (Japan) open Cho-sen (Corea) ? 

Turning with delight and fascination to the study of Japanese 
history and antiquities, I found much that reflected light upon the 
neighbor country. On my return home, I continued to search for 
materials for the story of the last of the hermit nations. No mas- 
ter of research in China or Japan having attempted the task, from 
what Locke calls "the roundabout view," I have essayed it, with 
no claim to originality or profound research, for the benefit of the 
general reader, to whom Corea " suggests," as an American lady 
said, "no more than a sea-shell." Many ask "What's in Corea ?" 
and "Is Corea of any importance in the history of the world? " 

My purpose in this work is to give an outline of the history of 
the Land of Morning Calm — as the natives call their country — from 
before the Christian era to the present year. As "an honest tale 
speeds best, being plainly told," I have made no attempt to em- 
bellish the narrative, though I have sought information from 
sources from within and without Corea, in maps and charts, coins 
and pottery, the language and art, notes and narratives of eye-wit- 
nesses, pencil-sketches, paintings and photographs, the standard 
histories of Japan and China, the testimony of sailor and diploma- 
tist, missionary and castaway, and the digested knowledge of critical 
scholars. I have attempted nothing more than a historical outline 
of the nation and a glimpse at the political and social life of the 
people. Por lack of space, the original manuscript of " Recent and 
Modern History," part m., has been greatl}^ abridged, and many 
topics of interest have been left untouched. 

The bulk of the text was written between the years 1877 and 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XI 

1880 ; since vvhich time the literature of the subject has been en- 
riched byKoss's "Corea" and " Corean Primer," besides the Gram- 
mar and Dictionary of the Corean language made by the French 
missionaries. With these linguistic helps I have been able to get 
access to the language, and thus clear up doubtful points and ob- 
tain much needed data. I have borrowed largely from Dallet's 
" Histoire d'Eglise de Coree," especially in the chapters devoted to 
Folk-lore, Social Life, and Christianity. In the Bibliography fol- 
lowing the Preface is a list of works to which I have been more 
or less indebted. 

Many friends have assisted me with correspondence, advice, or 
help in translation, among whom I must first thank my former stu- 
dents, Has^gawa, Hiraii, Haraguchi, Matsui, and Imadatt^, and my 
newer Japanese friends, Ohgimi and Eamura, while others, alas ! 
will never in this world see my record of acknowledgment — K. 
Yaye' and Egi Takato — whose interest was manifested not only in 
discussion of mooted points, but by search among the book-shops 
in Kioto and Tokio, which put much valuable standard matter in my 
hands. I also thank Mr. Charles Lanman, Secretary of the Legation 
of Japan in Washington, for four ferrotypes taken in Seoul in 1878 
by members of the Japanese embassy ; Mr. D. R. Clark, of the 
United States Transit of Venus Survey, for four photographs of 
the Corean villages in Russian Manchuria ; Mr. R. ideura, of Tokio, 
for a set of photographs of Kang-wa and vicinity, taken in 1876, 
and Mr. Ozawa Nankoku, for sketches of Corean articles in Japanese 
museums. To Lieutenant Wadhams, of the United States Navj^ 
for the use of charts and maps made by himself while in Corea in 
1871, and for photographs of flags and other trophies, now at 
AnnapoHs, captured in the Han forts ; to Fleet-Surgeon H. O. Mayo, 
and other officers of the United States Navy, for valuable informa- 
tion, I hereby express my grateful appreciation of kindness shown. 
I would that Admiral John Rodgers, Commodore H. C. Blake, and 
Minister F. F. Low were living to receive my thanks for their 
courtesies personally shovm me, even though, in attempting to 
write history, I have made criticisms also. To Lieutenant N. Y. 
Yanagi, of the Hyrographic Biireau, of the Japanese Navy, for a 



xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

set of charts of the coast of Corea ; to Mr. Metcalfe, of Milwaukea 
for photographs of Coreans ; to Miss Marshall, of New York, foi 
making colored copies of the battle-flags captured by our naval 
battalion in 1871, and for the many favors of correspondents — in St. 
Petersburg, Mr. Hoffman Atkinson ; in Peking, Jugoi Arinori 
Mori ; in Tokio, Dr. D. B. McCartee, Hon. David Murray, Kev. 
J. L. Amerman, and others whose names I need not mention. To 
Gen. George W. McCullum, Yice-President, and to Mr. Leopold Lin- 
dau, Librarian, of the American Geographical Society, I return my 
warmest thanks ; as well as to my dear wife and helpmeet, for her 
aid in copying, proof-reading, suggestions, and criticism during the 
progress of the work. 

In one respect, the presentation of such a subject by a compiler, 
while shorn of the fascinating element of personal experience, has an 
advantage even over the narrator who describes a country through 
which he has travelled. With the various reports of many wit- 
nesses, in many times and places, before him, he views the whole 
subject and reduces the many impressions of detail to unity, cor- 
recting one by the other. Travellers usually see but a portion of 
the country at one time. The compiler, if able even in part to con- 
trol his authorities, and if anything more than a tyro in the art 
of literary appraisement, may be able to furnish a hand-book of in- 
formation more valuable to the general reader. 

In the use of my authorities I have given heed to Bacon's ad- 
vice — tasting some, chewing others, and swallowing few. In ancient 
history, original authorities have been sought, and for the story of 
modern hfe, only the reports of careful eye-witnesses have been set 
down as facts ; while opinions and judgments of alien occidentals 
concerning Corean social life are rarely borrowed without due 
flavoring of critical salt. 

Corean and Japanese life, customs, beliefs, and history are often 
reflections one of the other. Much of what is reported from Corea, 
which the eye-witnesses themselves do not appear to understand, 
is perfectly clear to one familiar with Japanese life and history. 
China, Corea, and Japan are as links in the same chain of civil- 
ization Corea, like Cyprus between Egypt and Greece, wiU yet 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Xlll 

supply many missiDg details to the comparative student of language, 
art, science, the development of civilization, and the distribution ol 
life on the globe. 

Some future writer, with more ability and space at command 
than the undersigned, may discuss the question as to how far the 
opening of Corea to the commerce of the world has been the result 
of internal forces ; the scholar, by his original research, may prepare 
the materials for a worthy history of Corea during the two or three 
thousand years of her history ; the geologist or miner may deter- 
mine the question as to how far the metallic wealth of Corea will 
affect the monetary equilibrium of the world. The missionary has 
yet to prove the full power of Christianity upon the people— and 
before Corean paganism, any form of the rehgion of Jesus, Roman, 
Greek or Eeformed, should be welcomed ; while to the linguist, the 
man of science, and the political economist, the new country 
opened by American diplomacy presents problems of profound in- 
terest. 

w. E. a 

Schenectady, N. Y., October 2, 1888. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



The following is a list of books and papers containing information about 
Corea. Those of primary value to which the compiler of this work is specially 
indebted are marked with an asterisk (*) ; those to which slight obligation, if 
any, is acknowledged with a double asterisk ; and those which he has not 
consulted, with a dagger (f ). See also under The Corban Language and 
Cartography, in the Appendix. 

•* History of the Eastern Barbarians. " Book cxv. contains a sketch of the 
tribes and nations occupying the northeastern seaboard of China, with the 
territory now known as Manchuria and Corea." This extract from a 
History of the Later Han Dynasty (25-220 a.d.), by a Chinese scholar of 
the fifth century, has been translated into English by Mr. Alexander 
Wylie, and printed in the Revue de I'Extreme Orient, No. 1, 1882. Du 
Halde and De Mailla, in French, and Ross, in English, have also given 
the substance of the Chinese writer's work, which also furnishes the basis 
of J^apanese accounts of Corean history previous to the fourth century, 
f The Subjugation of Chaou-seen, by A. Wylie. (Atti del IV. Cong. int. degli 
Orient, ii., pp. 309-815, 1881.) This fragment is a translation of the 95th 
book of the History of the Former Han Dynasty of China. 

* Empirfe de la Chine et la Tartarie Chinoise, par P. du Halde. 

* The Kojiki and Mhongi, written in Japan during the eighth century, 

throws much light on the early history of Corea. 

* Wakan-San-sai Dzuye. Article on Cho-sen in this great Japanese Encyclo- 

paedia, 
f Tong-Kuk Tong-Kan (General View of the Eastern Kingdom), a native Co- 
rean history written in Chinese. 

* Zenrin Koku Hoki (Precious Jewels from a Neighboring Country), by 

Shiuho. Japan, 1586. 

* Corea, its History, Manners, and Customs, by tfohn Ross. 1 vol., pp. 404. Il- 

lustrations and maps. Paisley, 1880. 
*The Chinese Reader's Manual, by W. Fred. Mayers. 1 vol., pp. 440. Shang- 
hae, 1874. An invaluable epitome of Chinese history, biography, chro- 
nology, bibliography, and whatever is of interest to the student of 
Chinese literature. ' 

* Ko-cho Rekidai Enkaku Zukai. Historical Periods and Changes of the 

Japanese Empire, with maps and Aotes, by Otsuki Toyo. 



Xvi BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

' * San Koku Tsu-ran To-setsu. Mirror of the Three [Tributary] Kingdoms, 
Cho-sen, Riu kiu, and Yezo, by Rin Shihei, 1785. This work, with its 
maps, was translated into French by J. Klaproth, and published in Paris, 
1832. 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 288, of which pp. 158 relate to Cho-sen. Digested 
also in Siebold's Archiv. 

**Archiv zur Bescriebung von Japan, by Franz von Siebold. This colossal 
work contains much matter in text and illustrations relating to Corea, and 
the digest of several Japanese books, in the part entitled Nachrichten 
uber Korai, Japan's Beziige mit der Koraischen Halbinsel und mit Schina. 

* * Corea und dessen Einfiuss auf die Be volkerung Japans. Zeit. f iir Ethnol- 

ogic, Zitzungbericht VIII. p. 78, 1876. P. Kempermann. 

** O Dai Ichi Ran. This work, containing the annals of the emperors of Ja- 
pan, is a bird's-eye view of the principal events in Japanese history, written 
in the style of an almanac, which Titsingh copied down from translations 
made by Japanese who spoke Dutch. Klaproth revised and corrected 
Titsingh's work, and published his own version in 1834. Paris and Lon- 
don, 8vo, pp. 460. This work contains many references to Corea and the 
relations of the two countries, transcribed from the older history. 

** Tableaux Historiques de I'Asie, depuis la monarchie de Cyrus jusque nos 
jours, accompagnes de recherches historiques et ethnographiques, etc. 
Par J. Klaproth, Paris, 1826. Avec un atlas in folio. This manual of 
the political geography of Asia is very useful, but not too accurate. 

f A Heap of Jewels in a Sea of Learning (Gei Kai Shu Jin ; Jap. pron.). A 
chapte'r from this Chinese book treats of Corea. 

f Cho-sen Hitsu Go-shin. A collection of conversations with the pen, with a 
Corean who could not speak Japanese, By Ishikawa Rokuroku Sanjin, 
Yedo. 

* The Classical Poetry of the Japanese. By Basil Hall Chamberlain. Lon- 

don, 1880. 
** An Outline History of Japanese Education, New York, 1876. This mono- 
graph, prepared foK the Centennial Exposition at Ihiladelphia, reviews 
the educational influences of Corea upon Japan. The information given 
is, with other data, from Klaproth, utilized in Pickering's Chronological 
History of Plants, by Charles Pickering, M.D., Boston, 1879. 

* Japanese Chronological Tables. By William Bramsen, Tokid, 1880. An in- 

valuable essay on Japanese chronology, which was, like the Corean, based 
on the Chinese system. We have used this work of the lamented scholar 
(who died a few months after it was published) in rendering dates ex- 
pressed in terms of the Chinese into those of the Gregorian or modern 
system. 

** History of the Mongols 3 vols. pp. 1827. London, 1876. By Henry Howorth. 
This portly work is full of the fruits of research concerning the people 
led by Genghis Khan. It contains excellent maps of Asia, and of Mon- 
golia, and Manchuria, illustrating the Mongol conquests. 

\ Cho-sen Ki-che. (Memorandum upon Corean Affairs.) The Chinese ambassa- 
dor sent by the Ming emperor in 1450, gives in this little work an account 
of his journey, which throws light upon the political and geographical 
situation of Cho-sen and China at that time. Quoted by M. Scherzer, but 
not translated. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. Xvii 

* Nilion Guaishi. Military History of Japan, by Rai Sanyo, This is the 

Japanese standard history. It was published in 1827 in twenty-two vol- 
umes. It covers the period from the Taira) and Minamoto families to that 
of the Tokugawa in the seventeenth century. The first part of this work 
was translated into Lnglish by Mr. Ernest Satow, and published in The 
Japan Mail at Yokohama, 1872-74. In the latter portion the invasion of 
Clio-sen, 1592-97, is outlined. 

* Cho-sen Seito Shimatsiiki. A work in five volumes, giving an account of 

the embassies, treaties, documents relating to the invasion of 1592-97, 
with an outline of the war, geographical notes, with nine maps by Yama- 
zaki Masanagi and Miura Katsuyoshi. 

* Illustrated History of the Invasion of Cho-sen. Written by Tsurumine 

Hikoichiro. Illustrations by Hashimoto Giokuron. 20 vols. Yedo, 1853. 
This popular work, besides an outline of Corean history from the beginning, 
condensed from local legends and Chinese writers, details the operations 
of war and diplomacy relating to Hideyoshi's invasion. It is copiously 
illustrated with first-class wood engravings. It has not been translated. 

* Cho-sen Monogatari. A Diary and Narrative of the Japanese Military Opera- 
. tions in Cho-sen during the Campaign of 1594-97, by Okoji Hidemoto. 

Copied out and published in 1672, and again in 1849. This narrative of 
an eye-witness was written by the author at the time of the events de- 
scribed, and afterward copied by his own son and deposited in the temple 
at which his ancestors worshipped. This vivid and spirited story of the 
second invasion of Cho-sen by Hideyoshi has been translated into German 
by Dr. A. Pfizmaier, under the title Der Feldzug der Japaner gegen Corea, 
im Jahre, 1597. 2 vols. Vienna, 1875 : 4to, pp. 98 ; 1876 : 4to, pp. 58. 
** Chohitsuroku. History of the Embassies, Treaties, and War Operations 
during the Japanese Invasion. This work is by a Corean author, who 
was one of the ministers of the king throughout the war. It is written 
in Chinese, has a map, and gives the Corean side of the history of affairs 
from about 1585 to 1598. 3 vols. 

* Three Severall Testimonies Concerning the mighty Kingdom of Coray, 

tributary to the Kingdom of China, and bordering upon her Northeastern 
Frontiers, and called by the Portugales, Coria, etc., etc., collected out of 
Portugale yeerely Japonian Epistles, dated 1590, 1592, 1594. In Hak- 
luyt, London, 1600. 

«■ Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea. Trans. Asiatic Society of Japan. By W. G. 
Aston. In these papers Mr. Aston gives the results of a study of the cam- 
paign of 1592-97, as found in Japanese andTIorean authors. 

** Lettre Annuelle de Mars 1593, ecrite par le P. Pierre Gomez au P. Claude 
Acquavira, general de la Compagnie de Jesus. Milan, 1^97, p. 112 et 
suiv. In Hakluyt. 

* Histoire de la Religion Chr ' tienne au Japon. Par Leon Pages. 2 vols. , 

text and documents. Paris, 1869. 
** Histoire des deux Gonquerans Tartares, qui ont subjuge'la Chine, par le R. 

P. Pierre Joseph D'Orliens. 
*Ch6-sen Monogatari (Romantic Narrative of Travels in Corea), by two Men 

from Mikuni, in Echizen, cast ashore in Tartary in 1645. This work is 

digested in Siebold's Archiv. 



XVlll BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

* Narrative of an Unlucky Voyage and Imprisonment in Corea, 1653-166? 

In Astley's and Pinkerton's Voyages. By Hendrik Hamel. 

* Imperial Chinese Atlas, containing maps of China and each of the Provinces, 

including Shing-king and the neutral strip. 

* Histoire de I'Bglise de Coree, par Ch. Dallet. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 983. Paris, 

1874. This excellent work contains 192 pages of introduction, full of ac- 
curate information concerning the political social life, geography, and 
language of Corea, and a history of the introduction and progress of Ro- 
man Christianity, and the labors of the French missionaries, from 1784- 
1866. It contains also a map and four charts of Corean writing. 

* Une Expedition en Coree. In la Tour du Monde for 1873 there is an ar- 

ticle of 16 pp. (401-417) with illustrations, by M. H. Zuber, a French 
naval officer, who was in Corea in 1866 under Admiral Roze. An excel- 
lent descriptive paper by an eye-witness. 

* Diary of a Chinese Envoy to Corea (Journal d'une Mission en Coree), by 

Koei Ling, Ambassador of his Majesty the Emperor of China, to the court 
of Cho-sen in 1866. Translated from the Chinese into French by F. 
Scherzer, Interpreter to the French Legation at Peking. 8vo, pp. 77. 
Paris, 1882. This journal of the last Chinese ambassador to Seoul is well 
rendered, and is copiously supplied with explanatory notes, and a colored 
map of the author's route from Peking through Chili, Shing-King, via 
Mukden, and through three provinces of Corea to Seoul. 

f Many memoirs and special papers prepared by French officers in the expedi- 
tion to Corea in 1866 were prepared and read before local societies at 
Cherbourg, Lyons, etc. 

f Expedition de Coree. Revue maritime et coloniale, February, 1867, pp. 
474-481. 

f Paris Moniteur, 1866-67. 

** Lettre sur la Coree et son Eglise Chretienne. Bulletin de la Societe 
Geographique de Lyon, 1876, pp. 278-282, and June, 1870, pp. 417-422, 
and map. 

** The Corean Martyrs. By Canon Shortland. 1 vol., pp. 115. London. Com- 
piled from the letters of the French missionaries. 

**Nouvelle Geographie Universelle. This superb treasury of geographical 
science, still unfinished, contains a full summary of our knowledge of Corea, 
especially showing the prominent part which French navigators, scholars,' 
and missionaries have taken in its exploration. Paris. 

** Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World. By 
William R. Broughton. 2 vols. 4to, with atlas. London, 1804. 

* * Voyage Round the World. By Jean FranQois de Gallon de La Perouse. 

London, 1799. 
** Voyages to the Eastern Seas in the year 1818. By Basil Hall. New York, 
London, and revised by Captain Hall in 1827. Jamaica, N. Y. 

* Narrative of a Voyage in His Majesty's late Ship Alceste, to the Yellow Sea^ 

along the Coast of Corea, and through its numerous hitherto undiscovered 
Islands, etc., etc. By John McLeod, Surgeon of the Alceste. 1 voL, pp., 
288 (see pp. 38-53). London, 1877. A witty and lively narrative. 
** Voyages along the Coast of China (Corea), etc. By Charles Gutzlaff. 1 vol. , pp. 
332. New York, 1833. (From July 17, to August 17, 1832 ; pp. 254-287.; 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. xix 

* Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Samarang, during the years 1843-46. 

By Captain Sir B. BelcheW. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. tJ74-378. London, 1848. 
Vol. i. pp. 324^358 ; vol. ii., pp. 444-466, relate to Corea. 

* American Commerce with China. By Gideon Nye, Esq. In the Far East. 

Shanghae, 1878. A history of the commercial relations of the United 
States with China, especially before 1800. 

* Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, China, and Japan, 1866-81. 

* Report of the Secretary of the Navy to Congress, pp. 275-313. 1872. 

* Private Notes, Charts, and Maps of Officers of the United States Navy who 

were in Corea in 1871. 
** A Summer Dream of '71. A Story of Corea. By T. G. The Far East 
Shanghae, April, 1878. 

* Journey through Eastern Mantchooria and Korea. By Walton Grinnell. 

Journal American Geographical Society, 1870-71, pp. 283-300. 

* Japan and Corea. A valuable monograph in six chapters, by Mr. E. H. 

House, in The Tokio Times, 1877. 
** On a Collection of Crustacea made in the Corean and Japanese Seas. J. 

Muirs, 1879. London Zoological Society's Proceedings (pp. 18-81, pis. 

1-113). Reviewed by J. S. Kingsley. Norwich, N. Y. American 

Naturalist. 
** A Private Trip in Corea. By Frank Cowan, M.D. The Japan Mail, 1880. 
f The Leading Men of Japan. By Charles Lanman. Boston, 1882. Contains 

a chapter on Corea. 

* Manuscript volume of pencil notes made by Kawamura Kuanshiu, an officer 

on the Japanese gunboat Unyo-kuan, during her cruise and capture of 
the Kang-wa Fort, 1875. Partly printed in the Japan Mail. 

* Journals of Japanese JVIilitary and Diplomatic Officers who have visited Corea, 

and Correspondence of the Japanese newspapers, from Seoul, Fusan, Gen- 
san, etc. These have been partly translated for the English press at Yo- 
kohama. 

* Correspondence, Notes, Editorials, etc. , in the English and French newspa- 

pers published in China and Japan, 
** Maru-maru Shimbun (Japanese Punch). 

* Ch5-sen : Its Eight Administrative Divisions. 1 vol. T5ki5, Japan, 1882. 

* Cho-sen Jijo. A short Account of Corea, its History, Productions, etc. 2 

vols. Tokio, 1875. 

* Cho-sen Bunkenroku (Things Seen and Heard concerning Corea). By Sato 

Hakushi. 2 vols. Tokio, 1875. 

* Travels of a Naturalist in Japan [Corea] and Manchuria. By Arthur Adams. 

1 vol., pp. 334. London, 1870. See chaps, x., xi., pp. 125-166. 

** Ueber die Reise der Kais. Corvette Hertha, in besondere nach Corea. 
Kramer,, Marine Prediger. Zeit. fiir Ethnologie, 1873. Verhandlungen, 
pp. 49-54. 

** A Forbidden Land. By Ernest Oppert. 1 vol., pp. 349. Illustrations, 
charts, etc. New York, 1880. 

** Journeys in North China. By Rev. A. Williamson. 2 vols. 16mo. Lon- 
don, 1870. Besides a chapter on Corea, this work contains an excellent 
map of the country north and east of Ch5-sen 

**'jrhe Middle Kingdom. By S. Wells Williams. 



XX BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

** Consular Reports in tlie Blue Books of tlie British Government, especially 
the Reports of Mr. McPherson, Consul at Niu-chwang. January, 1866. 

* Handbook for Central and Northern Japan, with maps and plans. Satow 

and Hawes. 1 vol. 16mo, pp. 489. 'ihis work, which leaves nothing to 

be desired as a guide-book, contains several references to Corean art and 

history. 
** The Wild Coasts of Nipon. By Captain H. C. St. John(who surveyed some 

parts of Southern Corea in H.B.M.S. Sylvia). See chap, xii., pp. 235-255, 

with a map of Corea. 
** Darlegun aus der Geschichte und Geographie Coreas. Pfizmaier. 8vo, pp. 

50. Vienna, 1874. 
f Petermann's Mittheilungen, No. 1, Carte No. 19, 1871. 
** Das Konigreich Korea. Von Kloden. Aus alien Welth., x., Nos. 5 u. 6. 
f Corea. Geographical Magazine. (S. Mossman.) vi. p. 148, 1877. 
f Corea. By Captain Allen Young, Royal Geographical Society. Vol. ix., No. 

6, pp. 296-800. 
** China, with an Appendix on Corea. By Charles Eden. 1 vol., pp. 281- 

822. London. A popular compilation. 
** Korea and the Lost Tribes, and Map and Chart of Korea. Text and illus- 
trations. The title of this work is sufficient. Even the bibliography of 

Corea has a comic side. 
** Chi-shima (Kurile Islands) and Russian Invasion. A lecture delivered in 

Japanese, before the Tokio United Geographical Society, February 24, 

1882. By Admiral Enomoto. This valuable historical treatise, translated 

for the Japan Mail and Japan Herald, contains much information about 

Russian operations in the countries bordering the North Pacific and the 

Coreans north of the Tumen. 
}• Bulletin de la Societe Geographique, 1875. Corean villages in the Russian 

possessions described. 
** Ravensteins, The Russians on the Amoor. London, 1861. 
fDie Insel Quelpart. Deutsche Geogr. Blatter, 1879. iii.. No. 1, S. 45-46. 
j- A Trip to Quelpaert. Nautical Magazine, 1870, No. 4, p. 821-325. 
** The Edinburgh Review of 1872, and Fortnightly Review of 1875, contain 

articles on Corea. 
*The Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 

Edinburgh, containing the Correspondence and Notes of the Missionaries 

laboring among the Chinese and Coreans, and who have translated the 

New Testament into Corean. 
f La Coree, par M. Paul Tournafond, editor of L'Exploration, a geographical 

journal published in Paris, which contains frequent notes on Corea. 
f La Coree, ses Ressources, son avenir commercial^ par Maurice Jametel. 

L'Economiste Fran9ais, Juillet 28, 1881. 

* The Japan Herald, The Japan Mail, The Japan Gazette, L'Echo du Japan, 

of Yokohama, and North China Herald, Shanghae, have furnished much 

information concerning recent events in Corea. 
Corea, the Last of the Hermit Nations. Sunday Magazine, New York, May, 1878. 
Corea and the United States. The Independent, New York,^ov. 17, 1881. 
Corea, the Hermit Nation. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 

New York, 1881, No. 3. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. XXI 

Chautauqua Text-Books, No. 84. Asiatic History ; China, Corea, Japan. ICmo, 

pp. «6. New York, 1881. 
Library, of Universal Knowledge, articles Corea, Fusan, Gensan, Kang-wa, etc. 

New York, 1880. 
Cyclopsedia of Political Science, etc., article Corea. Chicago, 1881. 
The Corean Origin of Japanese Art. Century Magazine. December, 1882. 

By Wm. Elliot Griffis. 



ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION. 

In the transliteration of Corean names into English, an attempt has been 
made to render them in as accurate and simple a manner as is, under the cir- 
cumstances, possible. The Coreans themselves have no uniform system of 
spelling proper names, nor do the French missionaries agree in their render- 
ings — as a comparison of their maps and writings shows. Our aim in this 
work has been to use as few letters as possible. 

Japanese words are all pronounced according to the European method — a as 
in father, e as in prey, e as in men, i as in machine, o as in hone, u as in tune, u 
as in 8un ; ai as in aisle, ua as in quarantine, ei as in. feign, and iu is sounded 
as yu ; g is always hard ; and c before a vowel, g soft, I, q, s used as z, x, and 
the combinations ph and th are not used. The long vowel, rather diphthong o, 
or oJio, is marked o. 

The most familiar Chinese names are retained in their usual English form. 

Corean words are transliterated on the same general principles as the Japa- 
nese, though ears familiar with Corean will find the obscure sound between 
and short u is written with either of these letters, as Chan-yon, or In-chiun, 
or Kiung-sang. Ch may sometimes be used instead ofj; and e where o or a 
or ti might more correctly be used, as in Kang-wen, or Wen-chiu. Instead of 
the French ou, or ho, we have written W, as in Whang-hai, Kang-wa, rather 
than Hoang-hai, Kang-hoa, Kang-ouen, Tai-ouen Kun, etc. ; and in place of 
ts we have used ch, as Kwang-chiu rather than Kwang-tsiu, and Wen-chiu 
than Ouen-tsiu. 



MAPS AND PLANS. 



PAQB 

Ancestral Seats of the Fuyu Race, 25 

Sam-han, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Ancient Japan and Corea, . . . . . • . . .56 

The Neutral Territory, . . .85 

The Japanese Military Operations of 1593, 99 

The Campaign in the North, 1592-1593, .107 

The Operations of the Second Invasion, ....... 131 

Plan of Uru-san Castle, . . 138 

Home of the Manchius and their Migrations, . . . . . .155 

The Jesuit Survey of 1709, .165 

Ping-an Province, 181 

The Yellow Sea Province, . . 185 

The Capital Province, .188 

Military Geography of Seoul, 190 

Chung-chong Province, .......... 194 

Chulla-do, . ' . . . . .199 

The Province Nearest Japan, 204 

Kang-wen Province, .......... 208 

Corean Frontier Facing Manchuria and Russia, ... . . . 210 

Southern Part of Ham-kiung, . . . . . . . . . 215 

The Missionary's Gateway into Corea, . . , 364 

Border Towns of Northern Corea, 365 

The French Naval and Military Operations, 1866, . . . . . 379 
Map Illustrating the " General Sherman " Affair, . . . . . 393 

Map Illustrating the " China " Affair, 400 

Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871, 4J5 

General Map of Corea at the End of 1906 . . At end of volume. 



CONTENTS. 



PART L 
ANCIENT AND MEDIJEYAL HISTOEY. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Corean Peninsula, . 1 

CHAPTER II. 
The Old Kingdom of Clio-sen, . . . . . , . .11 

CHAPTER III. 

The Fuyu Race and their Migrations, ..••<>•• 19 

CHAPTER IV. 
Sam-han, or Southern Corea, . . . , • • • . .30 

CHAPTER V. 

Epoch of the Three Kingdoms. — Hiaksai, ...... 35 

CHAPTER VI. 
Epoch of the Three Kingdoms. — Korai, ...... 40 

CHAPTER VIL 
Epoch of the Three Kingdoms. — Shinra, .45 

CHAPTER Vm. 
Japan and Corea, . . . . . . . ,, . . .51 



XXIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Korai, or United Corea, . 63 

CHAPTER X. 
Cathay, Zipangu, and the Mongols, ...... 70 

CHAPTER XI. 
New Cho-sen, 76 

CHAPTER XII. 
Events Leading to the Japanese Invasion, . . • • . .88 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Invasion — On to Seoul, '95 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Campaign in the North, .....,.., 104 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Retreat from Seoul, .......... 115 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Cespedes, the Christian Chaplain, . . . . , , , . 131 

CHAPTER XVn. 
Diplomacy at Kioto and Peking, . , 124 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Second Invasion, . . . . . . . , , . 129 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Siege of Uru-san Castle, . . .137 

CHAPTER XX. 
Changes after the Invasion, 145 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Issachar of Eastern Asia, 154 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Dutchmen in Exile, 167 



CONTENTS. XXV 

PART 11. 
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COEEA. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

PAGK 

riie Eight Provinces, 179 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
The King and Royal Palace, 218 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Political Parties, 224 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Organization and Methods of Government, 230 

. . CHAPTER XXVII. 

Feudalism, Serfdom, and Society, 237 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Social Life. — Woman and the Family, ....... 244 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Child Life, 256 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Housekeeping, Diet, and Costume, 262 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Mourning and Burial, 277 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Out-door Life. — Characters and Employments, .... .284 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Shamanism and Mythical Zojlogy, . . , • . , .-- . 300 



XXYl C02J TENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

PACK 

Legends and Folk-lore, ^^^<' 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Proverbs and Pithy Sayings, . . . . . . .317 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
Tlie Corean Tiger, .330 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
Religion, 326 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Education and Culture, .......... 337 



PART III. 
MODEEN AND EECENT HISTOKY. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

PAGE 

The Beginnings of Christianity— 1784-1794, . . . . . . 347 

CHAPTER XL. 

Persecution and Martyrdom— 1801-1834, . . . . . .353 

CHAPTER XLI. 
The Entrance of the French Missionaries— 1835-1845, .... 361 

CHAPTER XLII. 
The Walls of Isolation Sapped, . 367 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
The French Expedition, , .377 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

American Relations with Corea, 388 



CONTENTS. XXVll 

CHAPTER XLV. 

PAGE 

A Body-Snatching Expedition, , . 396 

CHAPTER XLVI. 
Our Little War with the Heathen, 403 

CHAPTER XLV 11. 
The Ports Opened to Japanese Commerce, 420 

CHAPTER XLVIIL 
The Year of the Treaties, .433 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
The Economic Condition of Corea, 443 

CHAPTER L. 
Internal Politics : Chinese and Japanese, 458 

CHAPTER LL 
The War of 1894: Corea an Empire, . . . . . . .472 

CHAPTER LIL 

> 

Japan and Russia in Conflict, 484 

CHAPTER LHL 
Corea a Japanese Protectorate, ......... 497 

CHAPTER LIV. 
Cho-sen: A Province of Japan, . ...... 507 

INDEX, ..,,.. 521 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGB 

A City in CorpH. . . .- . . . . . . Frontispiece. 

Corean Coin, . . 10 

Coin of Modern Cho-sen, 18 

The Founder of Fuyu Crossing tlie Sungari River, . . . . .20 
Coin of the Sam-han, or the Three Kingdoms, . . . . .34 

CoinofKorai, 69 

Two-masted Corean Vessel, 75 

Tlie Walls of Seoul, • ... 79 

Magistrate and Servant, .81 

Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century, 101 

Styles of Hair-dressing in Corea, . . . . . . . . 161 

A Pleasure-party on the River, . . . . . . . . 196 

Corean Village in Russian Territory, . . . . . . .211 

Table Spread for Festal Occasions, 264 

Gentlemen's Garments and Dress Patterns, ...... 275 

Thatched House near Seoul, . ' 282 

Battle-tiag Captured by the Americans in 1871, ..... 305 

Battle-flagCapturedin the Han Forts, 1871, 320 

House and Garden of a Noble, ........ 355 

Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture, ..... 382 

The Entering Wedge of Civilization, 407 



ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL 
HISTORY 



COREA: 

THE HERMIT NATION 



CHAPTER I. 

THE COREAN PENINSULA. 



CoEEA, though unknown even by name in Europe until the six^- 
teenth century, was the subject of description by Arab geogra- 
phers of the middle ages. Before the peninsula was known as a 
political unit, the envoys of Shinra, one of the three Corean states, 
and those from Persia met face to face before the throne of China. 
The Arab merchants trading to Chinese ports crossed the Yellow 
Sea,,v^ited the peninsula, and even settled there. The youths of 
Shinra, sent by their sovereign to study the arts of war and peace 
at Nanking, the mediaeval capitol of China, may often have seen and 
talked with the merchants of Bagdad and Damascus. The Corean 
term for Mussulmans is hoi-hoi, "round and round "' men. Corean 
art shows the undoubted influence of Persia. 

A very interesting passage in the chronicles of Japan, while 
illustrating the sensitive regard of the Japanese for the forms of 
etiquette, shows another point of contact between Corean and 
Saracen civilization. It occurs in the Nihon O Dai Ichi Ran, or 
"A View of the Imperial Family of Japan." "In the first month 
of the sixth year of Tempio Shoho [February, 754 a.d.], the Japan- 
ese nobles Chan no Komaro and Kibi no Mabi returned from 
China, in which country they had left Fujiwara no Seiga. The 
former reported that at the audience which they had of the Em- 
peror Gen- sho, on New Year's Day [January 18th], the ambassadors 



2 COREA. 

of Towan [Thibet] occupied the first place to the west, those from 
Shinra the first place to the east, and that the second place to the 
west had been destined for them (the Japanese envoys), and the 
second place to the east for the ambassadors of the Kingdom 
of Dai Shoku [Persia, then part of the empire of the Caliphs]. 
Komaro, offended with this arrangement, asked why the Chinese 
should give precedence over them to the envoys of Shinra, a state 
which had long been tributary to Japan. The Chinese officials, 
impressed alike with the firmness and displeasure exhibited by 
Komaro, assigned to the Japanese envoys a place above those of 
Persia and to the envoys of Shinra a place above those of Thibet." 

Thus the point at issue was settled, by avoiding it, and assign- 
ing equal honor to Shinra and Japan. 

This incident alone shows that close communications were kept 
up between the far east and the west of Asia, and that Corea was 
known beyond Chinese Asia. At that time the boundaries of the 
two empires, the Arab and the Chinese, touched each other. 

The first notice of Corea in western books or writings occurs in 
the works of Khordadbeh, an Arab geographer of the ninth century, 
in his Book of Boads and Provinces. He is thus quoted by Rich- 
thofen in his work on China (p. 575, note) : > 

"What lies on the other side of China is unknovm land. But 
high mountains rise up densely across from Kantu. These lie over 
in the land of Sila, which is rich in gold. Mussulmans who visit 
this country often allow themselves, through the advantages of the 
same, to be induced to settle here. They export from thence gin- 
seng, deerhorn, aloes, camphor, nails, saddles, porcelain, satin, 
zimmit (cinnamon?) and galanga (ginger?)." 

Richthofen rightly argues that Sila is Shinra and Kantu is the 
promontory province of Shantung. This Arabic term " Sila " is a 
corruption of Shinra — the predominant state in Corea at the time 
of Khordadbeh. 

The name of this kingdom was pronounced by the Japanese, 
Shinra, and by the Chinese, Sinlo — the latter easily altered in 
Arabic mouths to Sila. 

The European name Corea is derived from the Japanese term 
Korai (Chinese Kaoli), the name of another state in the peninsula, 
rival to Shinra. It was also the official title of the nation from the 
eleventh to the fourteenth century. The Portuguese, who were the 
first navigators of the Yellow Sea, brought the name to Europe, 
calling the country Coria, whence the English Corea. 



THE COREAN PENINSULA. 3 

The French Jesuits at Peking Gallicized this into Coree. Fol- 
lowing the genius of their language, they call it La Coree, just as 
they speak of England as L'Angleterre, Germany as L'Allemande, 
and America as L'Amerique. Hence has arisen the curious desig- 
nation, used even by English writers, of this peninsula as "the 
Corea." But what is good French in this case is very bad English, 
and we should no more say "the Corea" than "the Germany," 
"the England," or "the America." English usage forbids the 
employment of the definite article before a proper name, and those 
writers who persist in prefixing the definite article to the proper 
name Corea are either ignorant of the significance of the word, or 
knowingly violate the laws of the English language. The native 
name of the country is Cho-sen (Morning Calm or Fresh Morning), 
which French writers, always prodigal in the use of vowels, spell 
Tsio-sen, Teo-cen, or Tchao-sian. The Chinese call it Tung-kwo 
(Eastern Kingdom), and the Manchius, Sol-ho or Solbo. 

The peninsula, with its outlying islands, is nearly equal in size 
to Minnesota or to Great Britain. Its area is between eighty and, 
ninety thousand square miles. Its coast line measures 1,740 miles. 
In general shape and relative position to the Asian Continent it 
resembles Florida. It hangs down between the Middle Kingdom 
and the Sunrise Land, separating the sea of Japan and the Yellow 
Sea, between the 34th and 43d parallels of north latitude. In its; 
general configuration, when looked at from the westward on a good 
map, especially the magnificent one made by the Japanese War 
Department, Cho-sen resembles the outspread wings of a headless 
butterfly, the lobes of the wings being toward China, and their tops, 
toward Japan. 

Legend, tradition, and geological indications lead us, to believe > 
that anciently the Chinese promontory and province of Shantung 
and the Corean peninsula were connected, and that dry land once 
covered the space filled by the waters joining the Gulf of Pechili 
and the YeUow Sea. These waters are so shallow that the eleva- 
tion of their bottoms but a few feet would restore their area to the 
land surface of the globe. On the other side, also, the sea of Japan 
is very shallow, and the straits of Corea, at their greatest depth, 
have but eighty-three feet of water. That portion of the Chinese 
province of Shing King, or Southern Manchuria, bordering the sea, 
is a great plain, or series of flats elevated but a few feet above tide 
water, which becomes nearly impassable during heavy rains. 

A marked difference is noted between the east and west coasts 



4 COREA. 

of the peninsula. The former is comparative^ destitute of harbors, 
and the shore is high, monotonous, and but sHghtly indented or 
fringed with islands. It contains but three provinces. On the 
west coast are five provinces, and the sea is thickly strewn with 
islands, harbors and landing places, while navigable rivers are 
more numerous. The " Corean Archipelago " contains an amaz- 
ing number of fertile and inhabited islands and islets rising out 
of deep water. They are thus described by the naturalist Arthur 
Adams : 

" Leaving the huge, cone-like island of Quelpaert in the distance, 
the freshening breeze bears us gallantly toward those unknown 
islands which form the Archipelago of Korea. As you approach 
them you look from the deck of the vessel and you see them dot- 
ting the wide, blue, boundless plain of the sea — groups and clusters 
of islands stretching away into the far distance. Far as the eye 
can reach, their dark masses can be faintly discerned, and as we 
close, one after another, the bold outlines of their mountain peaks 
stand out clearly against the cloudless sky. The water from which 
they seem to arise is so deep , around them that a ship can almost 
range up alongside them. The rough, gray granite and basaltic 
cliffs, of which they are composed, show them to be only the 
rugged peaks of submerged mountain masses which have been rent, 
in some great convulsion of nature, from the peninsula which 
stretches into the sea from the main land. You gaze upward and 
see the weird, fantastic outline which some of their torn and 
riven peaks present. In fact, they have assumed such peculiar 
forms as to have suggested to navigators characteristic names. 
Here, for example, stands out the fretted, crumbling towers of one 
called Windsor Castle^^ there frowns a noble rock-ruin, the Monas- 
tery, and here again, mounting to the skies, the Abbey Peak. 

" Some of the islands of this Archipelago are very lofty, and one 
was ascertained to boast of a naked granite peak more than two 
thousand feet above the level of the sea. Many of the summits are, 
crowned with a dense forest of conifers, dark trees, very similar in 
appearance to Scotch firs." 

The king of Corea may well be called " Sovereign of Ten 
Thousand Isles." 

Almost the only striking feature of the inland physical geogra- 
phy of Cho-sen, heretofore generally known, is that chain of moun- 
tains which traverses the peninsula from North to South, not in a 
straight line, but in an exceedingly sinuous course, similar to the 



THE COREAN PENINSULA. 5 

tacking of a ship when sailing in the eye of the wind. As the 
Coreans say, " it winds out and in ninety-nine times." 

Striking out from Manchuria it trends eastward to the sea at 
Cape Bruat on the 41st parallel, thence it strikes southwest about 
eighty miles to the region west of Broughton's Bay (the narrowest 
part of Corea), whence it bears westward to the«ea at the 37th paral- 
lel, or Cape Pelissier, where its angle culminates in the lofty mountain 
peaks named by the Russians Mount Popoff — after the inventor of 
the high turret ships. From this point it throws off a fringe of 
lesser hills to the southward while the main chain strikes south- 
west, and after forming the boundary between two most southern 
provinces reaches the sea near the Amherst Isles. Nor does its 
course end here, for the uncounted islands of the Archipelago, with 
their fantastic rock-ruins and perennial greenery, that suggest de- 
serted castles and abbeys mantled with ivy, are but the wave-worn 
and shattered remnants of this lordly range. 

This chief feature in the physical geography of the peninsula de- 
termines largely its ccnfiguration, climate, river system and water- 
shed, pohtical divisions, and natural barriers. Speaking roughly. 
Eastern Corea is a mountainous ridge of which Western Corea is 
but the slope. 

No river of any importance is found inside the peninsula east of 
these mountains, except the Nak-tong, which drains the valley 
formed by the interior and the sea-coast ranges, while on the w^est- 
ward slope ten broad streams collect the tribute of their melted 
snows to enrich the valleys of five provinces. 

Through seven parallels of latitude this range fronts the sea of 
Japan with a coast barrier which, except at Yung-hing Bay, is nearly 
destitute of harbors. Its timbered heights present a wall of living 
green to the mariner sailing from Vladivostok to Shanghai. 

Great differences of climate in the same latitude are observed on 
opposite sides of this mountain range, which has various local epi- 
thets. From their height and the permanence of their winter 
covering, the word "white" forms an oft-recurring part of their 
names. 

The division of the country into eight do, or provinces, which 
are grouped in southern, central, and northern, is based mainly on 
the river basins. The rainfall in nearly every province finds an 
outlet on its own sea-border. Only the western slopes of the two 
northeastern provinces are exceptions to this rule, since they dis- 
charge part of their waters into streams emptying beyond their 



6 COREA. 

boundaries. The Yalu, and the Han — "the river"— are the only 
streams whose sources lie beyond their own provinces. In rare in- 
stances are the rivers known by the same word along their whole 
length, various local names being applied by the people of different 
neighborhoods. On the maps in this work only the name most 
commonly given to each stream near its mouth is printed. 

In respect to the sea basins, three provinces on the west coast 
form one side of the depression called the Yellow Sea Basin, of 
which Northeastern China forms the opposite rim. The three east- 
ern do, or circuits, Hning the Sea of Japan, make the concave in the 
sea basin to which Japan offers the corresponding edge. The entire 
northern boundary of the peninsula from sea to gulf, except where 
the colossal peak Paik-tu ('White Head') forms the water-shed, is 
one vast valley in which lie the basins of the Yalu and Tumen. 

Corea is, in reality, an island, as the. following description of 
White Head Mountain, obtained from the Journal of the Chinese 
Ambassador to Seoul, shows. This Tnoi^pfflin Ka.^ two summits, 



one faci ng north, the other eas t. On the top is a lake thirty* 
around. ^ In shape the peak is that of a cQlossal white vase open to 
the sky, and fluted or scolloped round the edge like the vases of 
Chinese porcelain. Its crater, white on the outside, is red, with 
whitish veins, inside. Snow and ice clothe the sides, sometimes as 
late as June. On the side of the north, there issues a runnel, a 
yard in depth, which falls in a cascade and forms the source of the 
(Tumen) river. Three or four n from the summit of the mountain 
the stream divides into two parts ; one is the source of the Yalu 
River. 

In general, it may be said to dwellers in the temperate zone 
that the climate of Corea is excellent, bracing in the north, and in 
the south tempered by the ocean breezes of summer. The winters 
in the higher latitudes are not more rigorous than in the State of 
New York ; while, in the most southern, they are as delightful as 
those in the Carolinas. In so mountainous and sea-girt a country 
there are, of course, great climatic varieties even in the same prov- 
inces. 

As compared with European countries of the same latitude* 
Corea is much colder in winter and hotter in summer. In the 
north, the Tumen Eiver is usually frozen during five months in the 
year. The Han River at Seoul may be crossed on ice during two 
or three months. Even in the southern provinces, deep snows 
cover the mountains, though the plains are usually free, rarely 



THE CORBAN PENINSULA. 7 

holding tHe snow during a whole day. The lowest point to which 
the mercury fell, in the observation of the French missionaries, was 
at the 35th parallel of latitude 8° and at the 37th parallel 15° (F.). 
The most delightful seasons in the year are spring and autumn. In 
sunimer, in addition to the great heat, the rain falls often in tor- 
rents that blockade the roads and render travelling and transport 
next to impossible. Toward the end of September occurs the pe- 
riod of tempests and variable winds. 

A glance at the fauna of Corea suggests at once India, Europe, 
Massachusetts, and Florida. In the forests, especially of the two 
northern circuits, tigers of the largest size and fiercest aspect 
abound. When food fails them, they attack human habitatioLS, 
and the annual list of victims is very large. The leopard is com- 
mon. There are several species of deer, which furnish not only 
hides and venison, but horns which, when "in velvet," are highly 
prized as medicine. In the fauna are included bears, wild hogs 
and the common pigs of stunted breed,, wild cats, badgers, foxes, 
beavers, otters, several species of martens. The salamander is 
found in the streams, as in western Japan. 

Of domestic beasts, horses are very numerous, being mostly of 
a short, stunted breed. Immense numbers of oxen are found in 
the south, furnishing the meat diet craved by the people who eat 
much more of fatty stuff than the Japanese. 

Goats are rare. Sheep are imported from China only for sacri- 
ficial purposes. The dog serves for food as well as for companion- 
ship and defence. Of birds, the pheasant, falcon, eagle, crane, and 
stork, are common. 

Corea has for centuries successfully carried out the policy of 
isolation. Instead of a peninsula, her rulers have striven to make 
her an inaccessible island, and insulate her from the shock of 
change. She has built not a Great Wall of masonry, but a barrier 
of sea and river-flood, of mountain and devastated land, of palisades 
and cordons of armed sentinels. Frost and snow, storm and win- 
ter, she hails as l^r allies. Not content with the sea-border she 
desolates her shores lest they tempt the mariner to land. Between 
her Chinese neighbor and herself, she has placed a neutral space of 
unplanted, unoccupied land. This strip of forests and desolated 
plains, twenty leagues wide, stretches between Corea and Manchu- 
ria. To form it, four cities and many villages were suppressed 
three centuries ago, and left in ruins. The soil of these solitudes 
is very good, the roads easy, and the hills not high. 



S COREA. 

For centuries, only the wild beasts, fugitives from justice, and 
outlaws from both countries, have inhabited this fertile but forbid- 
den territory. Occasionally, borderers would cultivate portions of 
it, but gather the produce by night or stealthily by day, venturing 
on it as prisoners would step over the " dead line." Of late years, 
the Chinese Government has respected the neutrality of this barrier 
less and less. One of those recurring historical phenomena pecu- 
liar to Manchuria — the increase and pressure of population — has 
within a generation caused the occupation of large portions of this 
neutral strip. Parts of it have been surveyed and staked out by 
Chinese surveyors, and the Corean Government has been too feeble 
to prevent the occupation. Though no towns or villages are marked 
on the map of this "No-man's land," yet already, a considerable 
number of small settlements exist upon it. 

As this once neutral territory is being gradually obliterated, so 
the former lines of palisades and stone walls on the northern bor- 
der which, two centuries and more ago, were strong, high, guarded 
and kept in repair, have year by year, during a long era of peace, 
been suffered to fall into decay. Thfey exist no longer, and should 
be erased from the maps. 

The pressure of population in Manchuria upon the Corean bor- 
der is a portentous phenomenon. For Manchuria, which for ages 
past has, like a prolific hive, swarmed off masses of humanity into 
other lands, seems again preparing to send off a fresh cloud. Al- 
ready her millions press upon her neighbors for room. 

The clock of history seems once more about to strike, perhaps 
to order again another dynasty on the oft-changed throne of China. 

From mysterious Mongolia, have gone out in the past the vari- 
ous hordes called Tartars, or Tatars, Huns, Turks, Kitans, Mongols, 
Manchius. Perhaps her loins also are already swelling with a new 
progeny. This marvellous region gave forth the man- children who 
destroyed the Eoman Empire ; who extinguished Christianity in 
Asia and Africa, and nearly in Europe ; who, after conquering India 
and China threatened Christendom, and holding Russia for two 
centuries, created the largest empire ever known on earth ; and 
finally reared " the most improvable race in Asia " that now holds 
the throne and empire of China. 

Cho-sen since acting the hermit policy of ancient Egypt and me- 
diaeval China, has preserved two loopholes at Fusan and Ai-chiu, 
the former on the sea toward Japan, and the latter in the north- 
west, on the Chinese border. "What in time of peace is a needle's 



THE COREAN PENINSULA. P 

eye, is in time of war a flood-gate for enemies. From the west, the 
invading armies of China have again and again marched around 
over the Gulf of Liao Tung and entered the peninsula to plunder 
and to conquer, while Chinese fleets from Shan-tung have over and 
over again arched their sails in the Yellow Sea to furl them again 
in Corean Eivers. From the east, the Japanese have pushed across 
the sea to invade Corea as enemies, to help as allies against China, 
to levy tribute and go away enriched, or anon to send their grain- 
laden ships to their starving neighbors. 

From a political point of view the geographical position of this 
country is most unfortunate. Placed between two rival nations, 
aliens in blood,. temper, and policy, Cho-sen has been the rich grist 
between the upper and nether millstones of China and Japan. Out 
of the north, rising from the vast plains at Manchuria, the conquer- 
ing hordes, on their way to the prize lying south of the Great Wall, 
have over and over again descended on Corean soil to make it their 
granary. From the pre-historic forays of the tribes beyond the 
Sungari, to the last new actors on the scene, the Eussians, who 
stand vdth their feet on the Tumen, looking over the border on her 
helpless neighbor, Corea has been threatened or devastated by her 
eager enemies. 

Nevertheless Corea has always remained Corea, a separate 
country ; and the people are Coreans, more alHed to the Japanese 
than the Chinese, yet in language, politics, and social customs, dif- 
ferent from either. As Ireland is not England or Scotland, neither 
is Cho-sen China nor Japan. 

In her boasted history of "four thousand years," the little 
kingdom has too often been' the Ireland of China, so far as misgov- 
ernment on the one side, and fretful and spasmodic resistance on 
the other, are considered. Yet ancient Corea has also bee n an 
^ J.i:elan_d to JnpRiT^, in the better sense of giving to her the art, let- 
ters, science, and ethics of continental civilization. As of old, went 
forth from Tara's halls to the British Isles and the continent, the 
bard and the monk to elevate and civihze Europe with the culture 
of Eome and the religion of Christianity, so for centuries there 
crossed the sea from the peninsula ,4,^st£earQu-Q L ^^^Q^^^ ^> artists^ 
arid missionarifts whp bTV2l2PJTtJx>^_Jflj^^ pnpiglj^TTTbrrfi of Cho- 
sen, the literature of China, and the religion of India. A grateful 
bonze of Japan has well told the story of Corea's part in the civili- 
zation of his native country in a book entitled "Precious Jewels 
from a Neighbor Country/ 



10 COREA. 

Corea fulfils one of the first conditions of national safety in 
having "scientific frontiers," or adequate natural boundaries of 
river, mountain, and sea. But now what was once barrier is 
highway. What was once the safety of isolation, is now the weak- 
ness of the recluse. Steam has made the water a surer path than 
land, and Japan, once the pupil and anon the conqueror of the 
little kingdom, has in these last days become the helpful friend of 
Oorea's people, and the opener of the long-sealed peninsula. 

Already the friendly whistle of Japanese steamers is heard in 
the harbors of two ports in which are trading settlements. At 
Fusan and Gensan, the mikado's subjects hold commercial rivalry 
with the Coreans, and through these two loopholes the hermits of 
the peninsula catch glimpses of the outer world that must waken 
thought and create a desire to enter the family of nations. The ill 
fame of the native character for inhospitality and hatred of foreign- 
ers belongs not to the people, nor, is truly characteristic of them. 
It inheres in the government which curses country and people, and 
in the ruling classes who, like those in Old Japan, do not wish the 
peasantry to see the inferiority of l:hose who govern them. 

Corea cannot long remain a hermit nation. The near future 
will see her open to the world. Commerce and pure Christianity 
will enter to elevate her people, and the student of science, ethnol- 
ogy, and language will find a tempting field on which shall be 
solved many a 3'et obscure problem. The forbidden land of to-day 
is, in many striking points of comparison, the analogue of Old 
Japan. While the last of the hermit nations awaits some gallant 
Perry of the future, we may hope that the same brilliant path of 
progress on which the Sunrise Kingdom has entered, awaits the 
Land of Morning Calm. 

We add a postscript. As our manuscript turns to print, we 
hear of the treaty successfully negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt. 




Corean Coin^-" Eastern Kingdom, Precious Treasure.' 



CHAPTER n. 

THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHO-SEN. 

Like almost every country on earth, whose history is known, 
Corea is inhabited by a race that is not aboriginal. The present 
occupiers of the land drove out or conquered the people whom they 
found upon it. They are the descendants of a stock whose ances- 
tral seats were beyond those ever white mountains which buttress 
the northern frontier. 

Nevertheless, for the origins of their national history, we must 
look to one whom the Coreans of this nineteenth century still call 
the founder of their social order. The scene of his labors is laid 
partly within the peninsula, and chiefly in Manchuria, on the well 
watered plains of Shing-king, formerly called Liao Tung. 

The third dynasty of the thirty-three or thirty-four lines of 
rulers who have filled the oft-changed throne of China, is known 
in history as the Shang (or Yin). It began b.c. 1766, and after a 
line of twenty-eight sovereigns, ended in Chow Sin, who died b.c. 
1122. He was an unscrupulous tyrant, and has been called "the 
Nero of China." 

One of his nobles was Ki Tsze, viscount of Ki (or Latinized, 
Kicius). He was a profound scholar and author of important por- 
tions of the classic book, entitled the Shu King. He was a coun- 
sellor of the tyrant king, and being a man of upright character, 
was greatly scandalized at the conduct of his licentious and cruel 
master. 

The sage remonstrated with his sovereign hoping to turn him 
from his evil ways. In this noble purpose he was assisted by two 
other men of rank named Pi Kan and "Wei Tsze. All their efforts 
were of no- avail, and finding the reformation of the tyrant hopeless, 
Wei Tsze, though a kinsman of the king, voluntarily exiled him- 
self from the realm, while Pi Kan, also a relative of Chow Sin, was 
cruelly murdered in the following manner : 

The king, mocking the wise counsellor, cried out, "They say 



12 CORBA. 

that a sage has seven orifices to his heart ; let us see if this is the 
case with Pi Kan." This Chinese monarch, himself so much like 
Herod in other respects, had a wife who in her character re- 
sembled Herodias. It was she who expressed the bloody wish to 
see the heart of Pi Kan. By the imperial order the sage was put to 
death and his body ripped open. His heart, torn out, was brought 
before the cruel pair. Ki Tsze, the third counsellor, was cast into 
prison. 

Meanwhile the people and nobles of the empire were rising in 
arms against the tyrant whose misrule had become intolerable. 
They were led on by one Wu Wang, who crossed the Yellow Kiver, 
and met the tyrant on the plains of Muh. In the great battle that 
ensued, the army of Chow Sin was defeated. Escaping to his pal- 
ace, and ordering it to be set on fire, he perished in the flames. 

Among the conqueror's first acts was the erection of a memorial 
mound over the grave of Pi Kan, and an order that Ki Tsze should 
be released from prison, and appointed Prime Minister of the 
realm. 

But the sage's loyalty exceeded his gratitude. In spite of the 
magnanimity of the offer, Ki Tsze frankly told the conqueror that 
duty to his deposed sovereign forbade him serving one whom he 
could not but regard as a usurper. He then departed into the 
regions lying to the northeast. With him went several thousand 
Chinese emigrants, mostly the remnant of the defeated army, now 
exiles, who made him their king. It is not probable that in his 
distant realm he received investment from or paid tribute to King 
Wu. Such an act would be a virtual acknowledgment of the 
righteousness of rebellion and revolution. It would prove that the 
sage forgave the usurper. Some Chinese historians state that Ki 
Tsze accepted a title from Wu Wang. Others maintain that the 
investiture " was a euphemism to shield the character of the ances- 
tor of Confucius." The migration of Ki Tsze and his followers 
took place 1122 b.c. 

Ki Tsze began vigorously to reduce the aboriginal people of his 
realm to order. He pohced the borders, gave laws to his subjects, 
and gradually introduced the principles and practice of Chinese 
etiquette and poHty throughout his domain. Previous to his time 
the people lived in caves and holes in the ground, dressed in leaves, 
and were destitute of manners, morals, agriculture and cooking, 
being ignorant savages. The divine being, Dan Kun, had partially 
civihzed them, but Kishi, who brought 5,000 Chinese colonists with 



THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHO-SEJST. IB 

him, taught the aborigines letters, reading and writing, medicine, 
many of the arts, and the poHtical principles of feudal China. The 
Japanese pronounce the founder's name Kishi, and the Coreans 
Kei-tsa or Kysse. 

The name conferred by Kishi, the civilizer, upon his new domain 
is that now in use by the modern Coreans — Cho-sen or Morning 
Calm. 

This ancient kingdom of Chd-sen, according to the Coreans, 
comprised the modern Chinese province of Shing-king, which is 
now about the size of Ohio, having an area of 43,000 square miles, 
and a population of 8,000,000 souls. It is entirely outside and 
west of the limits of modern Corea. 

In addition to the space already named, the fluctuating bound- 
aries of this ancient kingdom embraced at later periods much terri- 
tory beyond the Liao River toward Peking, and inside the line now 
marked by the Great Wall. To the east the modern province of 
Ping-an was. included in Cho-sen, the Ta-tong River being its most 
stable boundary. " Scientific frontiers," though sought for in those 
anciient times, were rather ideal than hard and fast. "With all due 
allowance for elastic boundaries, we may say that ancient Cho-sen 
lay chiefly within the Liao Tung peninsula and the Corean province 
of Ping-an, that the Liao and the Ta-tong Rivers enclosed it, and 
that its northern border lay along the 42d parallel of latitude. 

The descendants of Ki Tsze are said to have ruled the country 
until the fourth century before the Christian era. Their names 
and deeds are alike unknown, but it is stated that there were forty- 
one generations, making a blood-line of eleven hundred and thirty- 
one years. The' line came to an end in 9 a.d., though they had lost 
power long before this time. 

By common consent of Chinese and native tradition, Ki Tsze 
is the founder of Corean social order. If this tradition be true, 
the civilization of the hermit nation nearly equals, in point of time, 
that of China, and is one of the very oldest in the world, being 
contemporaneous witli that of Egjrpt and Chaldea. It is certain 
that the natives plume themselves upon their antiquity, and that 
the particular vein of Corean arrogance and contempt for western 
civilization is kindred to that of the Hindoos and Chinese. From 
the lofty height of thirty centuries of tradition, which to them' is 
unchallenged history, they look with pitying contempt upon the 
upstart nations of yesterday, who live beyond the sea under some 
other heaven. When the American Admiral, John Rodgers, in 



14 COREA. 

1871, entered the Han Eiver with his fleet, hoping to make a treaty, 
he was warned off with the repeated answer that " Corea was satis- 
fied with her civiHzation of four thousand years, and wanted no 
other." The perpetual text of all letters from Seoul to Peking, of 
all proclamations against Christianity, of all death-warrants of con- 
verts, and of the oft-repeated refusals to open trade with foreign- 
ers is the praise of Ki Tsze as the founder of the virtue and order 
of " the little kingdom," and the loyalty of Corea to his doctrines. 

In the letter of the king to the Chinese emperor, dated Novem- 
ber 25, 1801, the language following the opening sentence is as 
given below : 

"His Imperial Majesty knows that since the time when the 
remnants of the army of the Yin dynasty migrated to the East 
[1122 B,c.], the little kingdom has always been distinguished by 
its exactness in fulfilling all that the rites prescribe, justice and 
loyalty, and in general by fidelity to her duties," etc., etc. 

In a royal proclamation against the Christian religion, dated 
January 25, 1802, occurs the- following sentence : 

"The kingdom granted to Ki Tsze has enjoyed great peace dur- 
ing four hundred years [since the establishment of the ruling dy- 
nasty], in all the extent of its territory of two thousand n and 
more," etc. 

These are but specimens from official documents which illus- 
trate their pride in antiquity, and the reverence in which their first 
law giver is held by the Coreans. 

Nevertheless, though Kishi may possibly be called the founder 
of ancient Cho-sen, and her greatest legislator, yet he can scarcely 
be deemed the ancestor of the people now inhabiting the Coreau 
peninsula. For the modern Coreans are descended from a stock 
of later origin, and quite different from the ancient Cho-senese. 
From Ki Tsze, however, sprang a line of kings, and it is possible 
that his blood courses in some of the noble families of the king- 
dom. 

As the most ancient traditions of Japan and Corea are based 
on Chinese writings, there is no discrepancy in their accounts of 
the beginning of Cho-sen history. 

Ki Tsze and his colonists were simply the first immigrants to 
the country northeast of China, of whom history speaks. He 
found other people on the soil before him, concerning whose origin 
nothing is known in writing. The land was not densely populated, 
but of their numbers, or time of coming of the aborigines, or 



THE OLD KINGDOM OP CHO-SEN. 15 

whether of the same race as the tribes in the outlying islands of 
Japan, no means yet in our power can give answer. 

Even the story of Ki Tsze, when critically examined, does not 
satisfy the rigid demands of modern research. Mayers, in his 
"Chinese Header's Manual" (p. 369), does not concede the first 
part of the Chow dynasty (1122 B.C.-255 a.d.) to be more than 
semi-historical, and places the beginning of authentic Chinese his- 
tory between 781 and 719 b.c., over four centuries after Ki Tsze's 
time. Koss (p. 11) says that " the story of Kitsu is not impossible, 
but it is to be received with suspicion." It is not at all improbable 
that the Cho-sen of Ki Tsze's founding lay in the Sungari valley, and 
was extended southward at a later period. 

It is not for us to dissect too critically the tradition concerning 
the founder of Corea, nor to locate exactly the scene of his labors. 
Suffice it to say that the general history, prior to the Christian era, 
of the country whose story we are to tell, divides itself into that 
of the north,^or Cho-sen, and that of the south, below the Ta-tong 
Eiver, in which region three kingdoms arose and flourished, with 
varying fortunes, during a millennium. 

We return now to the well-established history of Cho-sen. The 
Great Wall of China was built by Cheng, the founder of the Tsin 
dynasty (b.c. 255-209), who began the work in 239 a.d. Before 
his time, China had been a feudal conglomerate of petty, warring 
kingdoms. He, by the power of the sword, consolidated them into 
one homogeneous empire and took the title of the "First Univer- 
sal Emperor" (Shi Whang Ti). Not content with sweeping away 
feudal institutions, and building the Great Wall, he ordered all the 
literary records and the ancient scriptures of Confucius to be de- 
stroyed by fire. Yet the empire, w^hose perpetuity he thought to 
secure by building a rampart against the barbarians without, and 
by destroying the material for rebellious thought within, fell to 
pieces soon after, at his death, when left to the care of a foolish 
son, and China was plunged into bloody anarchy again. 

One of these petty kingdoms that arose on the ruins of the em- 
pire was that of Yen, which began to encroach upon its eastern 
neighbor Cho-sen. 

In the later days of the Ki Tsze family, great anarchy prevailed, 
and the last kings of the line were unable to keep their domain in 
order, or guard its boundaries. 

Taking advantage of its weakness, the king of Yen began boldly 
and openly to seize upon Cho-sen territory, annexing thousands of 



16 CORBA. 

square miles to his own domain. By a spasmodic effort, the sue- 
cessors of Ki Tsze again became ascendant, reannexing a large 
part of the territory of Yen, and receiving great numbers of her 
people, who had fled from civil war in China, within the borders, of 
Cho-sen for safety and peace. 

Thus the spoiler was spoiled, but, later on, the kingdom of Yen 
was again set up, and the rival states fixed their boundaries and 
made peace. The Han dynasty in b.g. 206 claimed the imperial 
power, and sent a summons to the king of Yen to become vassal. 
On his refusing, the Chinese emperor despatched an army against 
him, defeated his forces in battle, extinguished his dynasty, and an- 
nexed his kingdom. 

One of the survivors of this revolt, named Wei-man, with one 
thousand of his followers, fled to the east. Dressing themselves 
like wild savages they entered Cho-sen, pretending, with Gibeoni- 
tish craft, that they had come from the far west, and begged to be 
received as subjects. 

Kijun, the king, like another Joshua, believing their profes- 
sions, welcomed them and made their leader a vassal of high rank, 
with the title of 'Guardian of the Western Frontier.' He also set 
apart a large tract of land for his salary and support. 

In his post at the west, Wei-man played the traitor, and collect- 
ing a number of his former countrymen from the Yen province, 
suddenly sent to Kijun a messenger, informing him that a large 
Chinese army of the conquering Han was about to invade Cho-sen. 
At the same time, he suggested that he should be called to the 
royal side and be made Protector of the Capital. His desire being 
granted, he hastened with his forces and suddenly appearing before 
the royal castle, attacked it. Kijun was beaten, and fled by sea, 
escaping in a boat to the southern end of the peninsula. 

Wei-man then proclaimed himself King of Cho-sen, 194 b.c. He 
set out on a career of conquest and seized several of the neighbor- 
ing provinces, and Cho-sen again expanded her boundaries to cover 
an immense area. Wei-man built a city somewhere east of the Ta- 
tong Eiver. It was named Wang-hien. 

Two provinces of modern Corea were thus included within Cho- 
sen at this date. The new kingdom grew in wealth, power, and 
intelligence. Many thousands of the Chinese gentry, fleeing before 
the conquering arms of the Han "usurpers," settled within the lim- 
its of Cho-sen, adding greatly to its prosperity. 

During the reign of Yukio (Chinese, Yow Jin), the grandson of 



THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHOSEN. 17 

Wei-man, lie received a summons ro become vassal to the Chinese 
emperor, who sublimely declared that henceforward the eastern 
frontier of China should be the Ta-tong River — thus virtually wip- 
ing out Cho-sen with a proclamation. In b.c. 109, a Chinese am- 
bassador sailed over from China, entered the Ta-tong River, and 
visited Yukio in his castle. He plead in vain with Yukio to render 
homage to his master. 

Nevertheless, to show his respect for the emperor and his envoy, 
Yukio sent an escort to accompany the latter on his way. The 
sullen Chinaman, angry at his defeat, accepted the safe conduct 
of the Cho-sen troops until beyond the Ta-tong River, and then 
treacherously put their chief to death. Hurrying back to his mas- 
ter, he glossed over his defeat, and boasted of his perfidious murder. 
He was rewarded with the appointment of the governorship of Liao 
Tung. 

Smarting ^t the insult and menace of this act, Yukio, raising an 
army, marched to the west and slew the traitor. Having thus un- 
furled the standard of defiance against the mighty Han dynasty, he 
returned to his castle, and awaited with anxious preparation the 
coming of the invading hosts which he knew would be hurled upon 
him from China. 

The avenging expedition, that was to carry the banners of China 
farther toward the sunrise than ever before, was despatched both 
by land and sea, b.c. 108. The horse and foot soldiers took the 
land route around the head of Liao Tung Gulf, crossed on the ice 
of the Yalu River, and marched south to the Ta-tong, where the 
Cho-sen men attacked their van and scattered it. 

The fleet sailed over from Shantung, and landed a force of 
several thousand men on the Corean shore, in February or March, 
B.C. 107. Without waiting for the entire army to penetrate the 
country, Yukio attacked the advance guards and drove them to 
the mountains in disorder. 

Diplomacy was now tried, and a representative of the emperor 
was sent to treat with Yukio. The latter agreed to yield and be- 
come vassal, but had no confidence in the general whom he had 
just defeated. His memory of Chinese perfidy was still so fresh, 
that he felt unable to trust himself to his recently humbled ene- 
mies, and the negotiations ended in failure. As usual, with the 
unsuccessful, the Chinaman lost his head. 

Recourse was again had to the sword. The Chinese crossed 
the Ta-tong River on the north, and defeating the Cho-sen army, 
2 



18 



COREA. 



marched to the king's capital, and laid siege to it in conjunction 
with the naval forces. In spite of their superior numbers, the in- 
vaders vrere many months vainly beleaguering the fortress. Yet, 
though the garrison wasted daily, the king would not yield. 
Knowing that defeat, with perhaps a cruel massacre, awaited them, 
four Cho-sen men, awaiting their opportunity, during the fighting, 
discharged their weapons at Yukio, and leaving him dead, opened 
the gates of the citadel, and the Chinese entered. 

With the planting of the Han banners on the city walls, b.o. 
107, the existence of the kingdom of Cho-sen came to an end. 
Henceforth, for several centuries, Liao Tung and the land now com- 
prised within the two northwestern provinces of Corea, were parts 
of China. 

The conquered territory was at once divided into four provinces, 
two of which comprised that part of Corea north of the Ta-tong 
River. The other two were in Liao Tung, occupying its eastern 
and its western half. Within the latter was the district of Kokorai, 
or Kaokuli, at whose history we shall now glance. 




Coin of Modern Ch5-sen. " Ch5-sen, Current Treasure." 



CHAPTER in. 

THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 

SoMEWHEEE north of that vast region watered by the Simgari 
River, itself only a tributary to the Anmr, there existed, according 
to Chinese tradition, in very ancient times, a petty kingdom called 
Korai, or To-li. Out of this kingdom sprang the founder of the 
Corean race. "Slightly altering names, we may say in the phrase of 
Genesis : " Out of Korai went forth Ko and builded Corea," 
though what may be sober fact is wrapped up in the following 
fantastic legend. 

Long, long ago, in the kingdom called To-li, or Korai (so pro- 
nounced, though the characters are not those for the Korai of later 
days), there lived a king, in whose harem was a waiting-maid. One 
day, while her master was absent on a hunt, she saw, floating in the 
atmosphere, a glistening vapor which entered her bosom. This 
ray or tiny cloud seemed to be about as big as an egg. Under its 
influence, she conceived. 

The king, on his return, discovered her condition, and made 
up his mind to put her to death. Upon her explanation, how- 
ever, he agreed to spare her life, but at once lodged her in prison. 

The child that was born proved to be a boy, which the king 
promptly cast among the pigs. But the swine breathed into his 
nostrils and the baby lived. He was next put among the horses, 
but they also nourished him with their breath, and he lived. 
Struck by this evident will of Heaven, that the child should live, 
the king listened to its mother's prayers, and permitted her to 
nourish and train him in the palace. He grew up to be a fair 
youth, full of energy, and skilful in archery. He was named 
"Light of the East," and the king appointed him Master of his 
stables. 

One day, while out hunting, the king permitted him to give an 
exhibition of his skill. This he did, drawing bow with such un- 
erring aim that the royal jealousy was kindled, and he thought of 



20 



COREA. 



nothing but how to compass the destruction of the youth. Know- 
ing that he would be killed if he remained in the royal service, 
the young archer fled the kingdom. He directed his course to 
the southeast, and came to the borders of a vast and impassable 
river, most probably the Sungari. Knowing his pursuers were 
not far behind him he cried out, in a great strait, 




The Fownder of Fuyu Crossing the Sungari River. (Drawn by G. Hashimoto, Yedo, 1853.) 



"Alas ! shall I, who am the child of the Sun, and the grandson 
of the Yellow Eiver, be stopped here powerless by this stream." 

So saying he shot his arrows at the water. 

Immediately all the fishes of the river assembled together in 
a thick shoal, making so dense a mass that their bodies became a 
floating bridge. On this, the young prince (and according to the 



THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 21 

Japanese version of the legend, three others with him), crossed 
the stream and safely reached the further side. No sooner did he 
set foot on land than his pursuers appeared on the opposite shore, 
when the bridge of fishes at once dissolved. His three compan- 
ions stood ready to act as his guides. One of the three was 
dressed in a costume made of sea-weeds, a second in hempen gar- 
ments, and a third in embroidered robes. Arriving at their 
city, he became the king of the tribe and kingdom of Fuyu, 
which lay in the fertile and well-watered region between the Sun- 
gari Kiver and the Shan Alyn, or Ever-White Mountains. It ex- 
tended several hundred miles east and west of a line drawn south- 
ward through Kirin, the larger half lying on the west. 

FuyUj.as described by a Chinese writer of the Eastern Han 
dynasty (25 b.c.~190 a.d.), was a land of fertile soil, in which 
"the five cereals" (wheat, rice, millet, beans, and sorghum) could 
be raised. The 'men were tall, muscular, and brave, and withal 
generous and courteous to" each other. Their arms were bows and 
arrows, swords, and lances. They were skilful horsemen. Their 
ornaments were large pearls, and cut jewels of red jade: They 
made spirits from grain, and were fond of drinking bouts, feast- 
ing, dancing, and singing. With many drinkers there were few 
cups. The latter were rinsed in a bowl of water, and with great 
ceremony passed from one to another. They ate vsdth chopsticks, 
out of bowls, helping themselves out of large dishes. 

It is a striking fact that the Fuyu people, though living so far 
from China, were dwellers in cities which they surrounded with 
palisades or walls of stakes. They lived in wooden houses, and 
stored their crops in granaries. 

In the administration of justice, they were severe and prompt. 
They had regular prisons, and fines were part of their legal sys- 
tem. The thief must repay twelve-fold. Adultery was punished 
by the death of both parties. Further revenge might be taken 
upon the woman by exposing her dead body on a mound. Cer- 
tain relatives of a criminal were denied burial in a coffin. The 
other members of the family of a criminal suffering capital pun- 
ishment were sold as slaves. Murderers were buried alive with 
their victims. 

The Fuyu religion was a worship of Heaven, their greatest 
festival being in the eleventh month, when they met joyfully to- 
gether, laying aside all grudges and quarrels, and freeing their 
prisoners. Before setting out on a military expedition they wor- 



22 COREA. 

shipped Heaven, and sacrificed an ox, examining the hoof, to obtain 
an omen. If the cloven part remained separated, the portent was 
evil, if the hoof closed together, the omen was auspicious. 

The Fuyu chief men or rulers were named after the domestic 
beasts, beginning with their noblest animal, the horse, then the ox, 
the dog, etc. Rulers of cities were of this order. Their king was 
buried at his death in a coffin made of jade. 

Evidently the Fuyu people were a vigorous northern race, 
well clothed and fed, rich in grain, horses and cattle, possessing 
the arts of life, with considerable literary culture, and well ad- 
vanced in social order and political knowledge. Though the Chi- 
nese writers classed them among barbarians, they were, in con- 
trast with their immediate neighbors, a civilized nation. Indeed, 
to account for such a high stage of civilization thus early and so 
far fom China, Mr. Eoss suggests that the scene of the Ki Tsze's 
labors was in Fuyu, arather than in Cho-sen. Certain it is that 
the Fuyu people were the first nation of Manchuria to emerge 
from barbarism, and become politically weU organized. It is signifi- 
cant, as serving to support the conjecture that Ki Tsze founded 
Fuyu, that we discern, even in the early history of this vigor- 
ous nation, the institution of feudalism. "We find a king and no- 
bles, with fortified cities, and wealthy men, with farms, herds of 
horses, cattle, and granaries. "We find also a class of serfs, created 
by the degradation of criminals or their relatives. The other 
Manchurian people, or barbarians, surrounding China, were still 
in the nomadic or patriarchal state. Why so early beyond China 
do we find a well-developed feudal system and high political or- 
ganization ? 

It was from feudal China, the China of the Yin dynasty, from 
which Ki Tsze emigrated to the northeast. Knowing no other 
form of government, he, if their founder, doubtless introduced 
feudal forms of government. 

Whatever may be thought of the theory there suggested, it is 
certainly surprising to find a distinctly marked feudal system, 
already past the rudimentary stage, in the wilderness of Man- 
churia, a thousand miles away from the seats of Chinese culture, 
as early as the Christian era. 

As nearly the whole of Europe was at some time feudalized, so 
China, Corea, and Japan have each passed through this stage of 
political Ufe. 

The feudal system in China was abolished by Shi "Whang Ti, 



THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 23 

the first universal Emperor, b.c. 221, but that of Japan only after an 
interval of 2,000 years, surviving until 1871. It lingers still in 
Corea, whose history it has greatly influenced, as our subsequent 
narrative will prove. In addition to the usual features of feudal- 
ism, the existence of serfdom, in fact as well as in form, is proved 
by the testimony of Dutch and French observers, and of the lan- 
guage itseK. The richness of Corean speech, in regard to every 
phase and degree of servitude, wotdd suffice for a Norman land- 
holder in mediaeval England, or for a Carolina cotton-planter be- 
fore the American civil war. 

Out of this kingdom of Euyu came the people who are the 
ancestors- of the modem Coreans. In the same Chinese history 
which describes Fuyu, we have a picture of the kingdom of Koko- 
rai (or Kao-ku-li), which had Fuyu for its northern and Cho-sen 
for its southern neighbor. "The land was two thousand Z^ square, 
and contained many great mountains, and deep valleys." There 
was a tradition among the Eastern barbarians that they were an 
offshoot from Fuyu. Hence their language and laws were very 
much alike. The nation was divided into five families, named 
after the four points of the compass, with a yellow or central 
tribe. 

Evidently this means that a few families, perhaps five in num- 
ber, leaving Fuyu, set out toward the south, and in the valleys 
west of the Yalu Eiver and along the 42d parallel, founded a 
new nation. Their first king was Ko, who, perhaps, to gain the 
prestige of ancient descent, joined his name to that of Korai 
(written however with the characters which make the gound of 
modern Korai) and thus the realm of Kokorai received its name. 

A Japanese writer derives the term Kokorai from words se- 
lected out of a passage in the Chinese classics referring to the 
high mountains. The first character Ko, in Kokorai, means high, 
and it was under the shadows of the lofty Ever "White Mountains 
that this vigorous nation had its cradle and its home in youth. 
Here, too, its warriors nourished their strength until their clouds 
of horsemen burst upon the frontiers of the Chinese empire, and 
into the old kingdom of Cho-sen. The people of this young state 
were rich in horses and cattle, but less given to agriculture. 
They lived much in the open air, and were fierce, impetuous, 
strong, and hardy. They were fond of music and pleasure at 
night. Especially characteristic was their love of decoration and 
display. At their public gatherings they decked themselves in 



24 CORBA. 

dresses embroidered witli gold and silver. Their houses were also 
adorned in various ways. Their chief display was at funerals, 
when a prodigal outlay of precious metals, jewels, and embroi- 
deries was exhibited. 

In their rehgion they sacrificed to Heaven, to the spirits of the 
land, and of the harvests, to the morning star, and to the celestial 
and invisible powers. There were no prisons, but when crimes 
were committed the chiefs, after deliberation, put the criminal to 
death and reduced the wives and children to slavery. In this way 
serfs were provided for labor. In their burial customs, they 
made a cairn, and planted fir-trees around it, as many Japanese 
tombs are made. 

In the general forms of their social, religious, and political life, 
the people of Fuyu and Kokorai were identical, or nearly so; 
while both closely resemble the ancient Japanese of Yamato. 

The Chinese authors also state that these people were already 
in possession of the Confucian classics, and had attained to an un- 
usual degree of literary culture. Their officials were divided into 
twelve ranks, which was also the ancient Japanese number. In 
the method of divination, in the wearing of flowery costumes, and 
in certain forms of etiquette, they and the Japanese were ahke. 
As is now well known, the ancient form of government of the 
Yamato Japanese (that is, of the conquering race from Corea and 
the north) was a rude feudalism and not a monarchy. .^Further, 
the central part of Japan, first held by the ancestors of the mi- 
kado, consists oifive provinces, like the Kokorai division, into five 
clans or tribes. 

At the opening of the Christian era we find the people of Ko- 
korai already strong and restless enough to excite attention from 
the Chinese court. In 9 a.d. they were recognized as a nation 
with their own "kings," and classified with Huentu, one of the 
districts of old Cho-sen. One of these kings, in the year 30, sent 
tribute to the Chinese emperor. In 50 a.d. Kokorai, by invitation, 
sent their warriors to assist the Chinese army against a rebel horde 
in the northwest. In a.d. 70 the men of Kokorai descended upon 
Liao Tung, and having now a taste for border war and conquest, 
they marched into the petty kingdom of Wei, which lay in what is 
now the extreme northeast of Corea. Absorbing this little coun- 
try, they kept up constant warfare against the Chinese. Though 
their old kinsmen, the Fuyu men, were at times allies of the Han, 
yet they gradually spread themselves eastward and southward, so 



THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 



25 




il 



Fuyu and Manchiu. 



26 COREA. 

that by 169 a.d. tlie Kokorai kingdom embraced the whole of the 
territory of old Cho-sen, or of Liao Tung, with all the Corean 
peninsula north of the Ta~tong, and even to the Tumen Eiver. 

This career of conquest suffered a check for a time, when a 
Chinese expedition, sailing up the Yalu Biver, invested the capital 
city of the king and defeated his army. The king fled beyond 
the Tumen Eiver. Eight thousand people are said to have been 
made prisoners or slaughtered by the Chinese. For a time it 
seemed as though Kokorai were too badly crippled to move again. 

Anarchy broke out in China, on the faU of the house of Han, 
A.D. 220, and lasted for half a century. That period of Chinese his- 
tory, from 221 to 277, is called the "Epoch of the Three King- 
doms." During this period, and until well into the fifth century, 
while China was rent into "Northern" and "Southern" divisions, 
the military activities of Kokorai were employed with varying re- 
sults against the petty kingdoms that rose and fell, one after the 
other, on the soil between the Great Wall and the Yalu River. 
During this time the nation, free from the power and oppression of 
China, held her own and compacted her power. In the fifth cen- 
tury her warriors had penetrated nearly as far west as the modern 
Peking in their cavalry raids. Wily in diplomacy, as brave in 
war, they sent tribute to both of the rival claimants for the throne 
of China which were likely to give them trouble in the future^ 
Dropping the family name of their first king, they retained that 
of their ancestral home-land, and called their nation Korai. 

Meanwhile, as they multiplied in numbers, the migration of Ko- 
korai people, henceforth known as Korai men, set steadily south- 
ward. Weakness in China meant strength in Korai. The Chinese 
had bought peace with their Eastern neighbors by titles and gifts, 
which left the Koraians free to act against, their- southern, nedghr. 
bors. In steadily displacing these, they cMe info" collision with 
the little kingdom of Hiaksai, whose history will be narrated 
farther on. It will be seen that the Korai men, people of the 
Fuyu race, finally occupied the territory of Hiaksai. Already the 
Koraians, sure of further conquest southward, fixed their capital at 
Ping-an. 

In 589 A.D. the house of Sui was established on the dragon 
throne, and a portentous message was sent to the King of Korai, 
which caused the latter to make vigorous war preparations. Evi- 
dently the Chinese emperor meant to throttle the young giant of 
the north, while the young giant was equally determined to live. 



THE PUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 27 

The movement of a marauding force of Koraians, even to the inside 
of tjie Great Wall, gave the bearded dragon not only the pretext 
of war but of annexation. 

For this purpose an army of three hundred thousand men and 
a fleet of several hundred war-junks were prepared. The latter 
were to sail over from Shantung, and enter the Ta-tong Biver, the 
goal of the expedition being Ping-an city, the Koraian capital. 

The horde started without provisions, and arrived in mid-sum- 
mer at the Liao Eiver in want of food. While waiting, during the 
hot weather, in this malarious and muddy region, the soldiers died 
by tens of thousands of fever and plague. The incessant rains 
soon rendered the roads impassable and transport of provisions 
an impossibility. Disease melted the mighty host away, and the 
army, reduced to one-fifth its numbers, was forced to retreat. The 
war-junks fared no better, for storms in the Yellow Sea drove them 
back or foundered them by the score. 

Such a frightful loss of life and material did not deter the 
next emperor, the infamous Yang (who began the Grand Canal), 
from following out the scheme of his father, whom he conveni- 
ently poisoned while already dying. In spite of the raging fam- 
ines and losses by flood, the emperor ordered magazines for the 
armies of invasion to be established near the coast, and contin- 
gents of troops for the twenty-four corps to be raised in every 
province. All these preparations caused local famines and drove 
many of the people into rebellion. 

This army, one of the greatest ever assembled in China, num- 
bered over one million men. Its equipment consisted largely of 
banners, gongs, and trumpets. The undisciplined horde began 
their march, aiming to reach the Liaa Eiver before the hot season 
set in. They found the Koraian army ready to dispute their pas- 
sage. Three bridges, hastily constructed, were thrown across the 
stream, on which horse and foot pressed eagerly toward the 
enemy. The width of the river^ Shad, however, been raiscalcula- 
ted and the bridges were too short, so that many thousands of the 
Chinese were drowned or killed by the Koraians, at unequal odds, 
while fighting on the shore. In two days, however, the bridges 
were lengthened and the whole force crossed over. The Chinese 
van pursued their enemy, slaughtering ten thousand before they 
could gain the fortified city of Liao Tung. Once inside their 
walls, however, the Korai soldiers were true to their reputation of 
being splendid garrison fighters. Instead of easy victory the 



28 COREA. 

Chinese army lay around the city unable, even after several 
months' besieging, to breach the walls or weaken the spirit of the 
defenders. 

Meanwhile the other division had marched northward and 
eastward, according to the plan of the campaign. Eight of these 
army corps, numbering 300,000 men, arrived and went into camp 
on the west bank of the Yalu River. In spite of express orders to 
the contrary, the soldiers had thrown away most of the hundred 
days' rations of grain with which they started, and the commissa- 
riat was very low. The Koraian commander, carrying out the 
Fabian policy, tempted them away from their camp, and led them 
by skirmishing parties to within a hundred miles of Ping-an. 
The Chinese fleet lay within a few leagues of the invading army, 
but land and sea forces were mutually ignorant of each other's vi- 
cinity. Daring not to risk the siege of a city so well fortified by 
nature and art as Ping-an, in his present lack of supplies, the Chi- 
nese general reluctantly ordered a retreat, which began in late 
summer, the nearest base of supplies being Liao Tung, four hun- 
dred miles away and through an enemy's country. 

This was the signal for the Koraians to assume the offensive, 
and like the Cossacks, upon the army of Napoleon, in Russia, they 
hung upon the flanks of the hungry fugitives, slaughtering thou- 
sands upon thousands. 

When the Chinese host were crossing the Chin-chion River, 
the Koraian army fell in full force upon them, and the fall of the 
commander of their rear-guard turned defeat into a rout. The 
disorderly band of fugitives rested not till well over and beyond 
the Yalu River. Of that splendid army of 300,000 men only a 
few thousand reached Liaq Tung city. The weapons, spoil, and 
prisoners taken by the Koraians were "myriads of myriads of 
myriads." The naval forces in the river, on hearing the amazing 
news of their comrades' defeat, left Corea and crept back to China. 
The Chinese emperor was so enraged at the utter failure of his 
prodigious enterprise, that he had the fugitive officers publicly 
put to death as an example. 

In spite of the disasters of the previous year, the emperor 
Yang, in 613, again sent an army to besiege Liao Tung city. On 
this occasion scaling ladders, 150 feet long, and towers, mounted 
on wheels, were used with great effect. Just on the eve of the 
completion of their greatest work and tower the Chinese camp 
was suddenly abandoned, the emperor being called home to put 



THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIOJS^S. 29 

down a formidable rebellion. So cautious were the besieged and 
BO sudden was the flight of the besiegers, that it was noon before 
a Koraian ventured into camp, and two days elapsed before they 
discovered that the retreat was not feigned. Then the Koraian 
garrison attacked the Chinese rear-guard with severe loss. 

The rebellion at home having been put down the emperor 
again cherished the plan of crushing Korai, but other and greater 
insurrections broke out that required his attention ; for the three 
expeditions against Corea had wasted the empire even as they had 
sealed the doom of the Sui dynasty. Though no land forces could 
be spared, a new fleet was sent to Corea to lay siege to Ping-an city. 
Even with large portions of his dominions in the hands of rebels, 
Yang never gave up his plan of humbling Korai. This project 
was the cause of the most frightful distress in China, and seeing 
no hope of saving the country except by the murder of the infa- 
mous emperor, coward, drunkard, tyrant, and voluptuary, a band 
of conspirators, headed by Yu Min, put him to death and Korai 
had rest. 

To summarize this chapter. It is possible that Ki Tsze was 
the founder of Fuyu. The Kokorai tribes were people who had 
migrated from Fuyu, and settled north and west of the upper 
waters of the Yahi River. They entered into relations with the 
Chinese as early as 9 a.d., and coming into collision with them by 
the year 70, they kept up a fitful warfare with them, sustaining 
mighty invasions, until the seventh century, while in the mean- 
time Korai, instead of being crushed by China, grew in area and 
aumbers until the nation had spread into the peninsula, and over- 
run it as far as the Han Eiver. 

Thus far the history of Corea has been that of the northern 
and western part of the peninsula, and has been derived chiefly 
from Chinese sources. We turn now to the southern and eastern 
portions, and in narrating their history we shall point out theii* 
relations with Japan as well as with China, relying largely for our 
information upon the Japanese annals. 



CHAPTER TV. 

SAM-HAN, OR SOUTHERN CORBA. 

At the time of the suppression of Cho-sen and the incorpora- 
tion of its territory with the Chinese Empire, b.c. 107, all Corea 



Map of Sam-han in Southern Corea. 



south of the Ta-tong River was divided into three han, or geo- 
graphical divisions. Their exact boundaries are uncertain, but 
their general topography may be learned from the map. 



SAM-HAN, OR SOUTHERN COREA. 31 



MA-HAN AND BEN-HAN. 

This little country included fifty-four tribes or clans, each one 
independent of the other, and living under a sort of patriarchal 
government. The larger tribes are said to have been composed 
of ten thousand, s and the smaller of a thousand, families each. 
Kound numbers, however, in ancient records are worth little for 
critical purposes. 

South of the Ma-han was the Ben-han, in which were twelve 
tribes, having the same manners and customs as the Ma-han, and 
speaking a different yet kindred dialect. One of these clans 
formed the little kingdom of Amana, from which came the first 
visit of Coreans recorded in the Japanese annals. 

After the overthrow of his family and kingdom by the traitor 
Wei-man, Kijun, the king of old Cho-sen escaped to the sea and 
fled south toward the archipelago. He had with him a number 
of his faithful adherents, their wives and children. He landed 
among one of the clans of Ma-han, composed of Chinese refugees, 
who, not wishing to live under the Han emperors, had crossed the 
Yellow Sea. On account of their numbering, originally, one hun- 
dred families, they called themselves Hiaksai. Either by conquest 
or invitation Kijun soon became their king. Glimpses of the 
manner of life of these early people are given by a Chinese writer. 

The Ma-han people were agricultural, dwelling in villages, but 
neither driving nor riding oxen or horses, most probably because 
they did not possess them. Their huts were made of earth 
banked upon timber, with the door in the roof. They went bare- 
headed, and coiled or tied their hair in a knot. They set no value 
on gold, jewels, or embroidery, but wore pearls sewed on their 
clothes and hung on their necks and ears. Perhaps the word here 
translated "pearl" may be also applied to drilled stones of a 
cylindrical or curved shape, like the magatama, or "bent jewels," 
of the ancient Japanese. They shod their feet with sandals, and 
wore garments of woven stuff. In etiquette they were but slightly 
advanced, paying little honor to women or to the aged. Like our 
Indian bucks, the young men tested their endurance by torture. 
Slitting the skin of the back, they ran a cord through the flesh, 
upon which was hung a piece of wood. This was kept suspended 
tiU the man, unable longer to endure it, cried out to have it taken 
off 



32 CORBA. 

After the field work v/as over, in early summer, they held 
Irinking bouts, in honor of the spirits, with songs and dances. 
Scores of men, quickly following each other, stamped on the 
ground to beat time as they danced. In the late autumn, after 
harvests, they repeated these ceremonies. In each clan there was 
a man, chosen as ruler, to sacrifice to the spirits of heaven. On 
a great pole they hung drums and beUs for the service of the 
heavenly spirits. Perhaps these are the originals of the tall and 
slender pagodas with their pendant wind-bells at the many eaves 
and comers. 

Among the edible products of Ma-han were fowls with tails five 
feet in length. These "hens with tails a yard long" were evi- 
dently pheasants — still a deUcacy on Corean tables. The large 
apple-shaped pears, which have a wooden taste, half way between 
a pear and an apple, were then, as now, produced in great num- 
bers. The flavor improves by cooking. 

As Kijun's government was one of vigor, his subjects advanced 
in civilization, the Hiaksai people gradually extended their au- 
thority and influence. The clan names in time faded away or be- 
came symbols of family bonds instead of governmental authority, 
so that by the fourth century Hiaksai had become paramount 
over all the fifty-four tribes of Ma-han, as well as over some of 
those of the other two han. 

Thus arose the kingdom of Hiaksai (called also Eudara by the 
Japanese, Petsi by the Chinese, and Baiji by the modern Coreans), 
which has a history extending to the tenth century, when it was 
extinguished in name and fact in united Corea. 

Its relations with Japan were, in the main, friendly, the island- 
ers of the Sunrise Kingdom being comrades in arms with them 
against their invaders, the Chinese, and their hostile neighbors, 
the men of Shinra — whose origin we shall now proceed to detail. 

SHIN-HAN. 

After the fall of the Tsin dynasty in China, a small body of 
refugees, leaving their native seats, fled across the Yellow Sea 
toward the Sea of Japan, resting only when over the great moun- 
tain chain. They made settlements in the valleys and along the 
sea-coast. At first they preserved their blood and language pure, 
forming one of the twelve clans or tribes into which the han or 
country was divided. 



SAM-HAN, OR SOUTHERN COREA. 33 

This naiiie Shin (China or Chinese), which points to the origin 
of the clan, belonged to but one of the twelve tribes in eastern 
Corea. As in the case of Hiaksai, the Shin tribe, being possessed 
of superior power and intelligence, extended their authority and 
boundaries, gra4ually becoming very powerful. Under their 
twenty-second hereditary chief, or "king," considering themselves 
paramount over all the clans, they changed the name of their 
country to Shinra, which is pronounced in Chinese Sinlo. 

Between the years 29 and 70 a.d., according to the Japanese 
histories, an envoy from Shinra arrived in Japan, and after an 
audience had of the mikado, presented him with mirrors, swords, 
jade, and other works of skill and art. In this we have a hint as 
to the origin of Japanese decorative art. It is evident from these 
gifts, as well as from the reports of Chinese historians concern- 
ing the refined manners, the hereditary aristocracy, and the for- 
tified strongholds of the Shinra people, that their grade of civili- 
zation was much higher than that of their northern neighbors. 
It was certainly superior to that of the Japanese, who, as we 
shall see, were soon tempted to make descents upon the fertile 
lands, rich cities, and defenceless coasts of their visitors from the 
west. 

How long the Chinese colonists who settled in Shin-han pre- 
served their language and customs is not known. Though these 
were lost after a few generations, yet it is evident that their influ- 
ence on the aborigines of the country was very great. From first 
to last Shinra excelled in civilization all the petty states in the 
peninsula, of which at first there were seventy-eight. Unlike the 
Ma-han, the Shin-han people lived in palisaded cities, and in 
houses the doors of which were on the ground and not on the 
roof. They cultivated mulberry-trees, reared the silk-worm, and 
wove silk into fine fabrics. They used wagons with yoked oxen, 
and horses for draught, and practised "the law of the road." 
Marriage was conducted with appropriate ceremony. Dancing, 
drinking, and singing were favorite amusements, and the lute was 
played in addition to drums. They understood the art of smelt- 
ing and working iron, and used this metal as money. They caT- 
ried on trade with the other han, and with Japan. How far these 
arts owed their encouragement or origin to traders, or travelling 
merchants from China, is not known. Evidently Shinra enjoyed 
leadership in the peninsula, largely from her culture, wealth, and 
knowledge of iron. The curious custom, so weU known among 



34 COREA. 

American savages, of flattening the heads of newly bom infants, is 
noted among the Shin-han people. 

Neither Chinese history nor Japanese tradition, though they 
give us some account of a few hundred famihes of emigrants from 
China who settled in the already inhabited Corean peninsula, throws 
any light on the aborigines as to whence or when they came. The 
curtain is lifted only to show us that a few people are already 
there, with language and customs different from those of China. 
The descendants of the comparatively few Chinese settlers were 
no doubt soon lost, with their language and ancestral customs, 
among the mass of natives. These aboriginal tribes were destined 
to give way to a new people from the far north, as we shall learn 
in our further narrative. The Japanese historians seem to distin- 
guish between the San Han, the three countries or confederacies 
of loosely organized tribes, and the San Goku, or Three Kingdoms. 
The Coreans, however, speak only of the Sam-han, meaning 
thereby the three political divisions of the peninsula, and using 
the word as referring rather to the epoch. The common " cash," 
or fractional coin current in the country, bears the characters 
meaning " circulating medium of the Three Kingdoms," or Sam- 
han. These were Korai in the north, Shinra in the southeast, and 
Hiaksai in the southwest. Other Japanese names for these were 
respectively Kome, Shiriaki, and Kudara, the Chinese terms being 
KaoU, Sinlo, and Pe-tsi. 

Like the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and "Wales, 
called also Britannia, Caledonia, and Cambria, these Corean states 
were distinct in origin, were conquered by a race from without, 
received a rich infusion of alien blood, struggled in rivalry for 
centuries, and were finally united into one nation, with one flag 
and one sovereign. 




Coin of the Sam-han or the Three Kingdoms. " Sam-han, Current Treasure. 



CHAPTER y. 

EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— HI AKSAL 

The history of the peninsular states from the time in which it is 
first known until the tenth century, is that of almost continuous 
civil war or border fighting. The boundaries of the rival king- 
doms changed from time to time as raid and reprisal, victory or 
defeat, turned the scale of war. A series of maps of the penin- 
sula expressing the political situation during each century or 
half-century would show many variations of boundaries, and re- 
semble those of Great Britain when the various native and con- 
tinental tribes were struggling for its mastery. Something like 
an attempt to depict these changes in the political geography of 
the peninsula has been made by the Japanese historian, Otsuki 
Toyo, in his work entitled " Historical Periods and Changes of the 
Japanese Empire." 

Yet though our narrative, through excessive brevity, seems to be 
only a picture of war, we must not forget that Hiaksai, once low- 
est in civilization, rapidly became, and for a while continued, the 
leading state in the peninsula. It held the lead in literary culture 
imtil crushed by China. The classics of Confucius and Mencius, 
with letters, writing, and their whole train of literary blessings, 
were introduced first to the peninsula in Hiaksai. In 374 a.d. 
Ko-ken was appointed a teacher or master of Chinese literature, 
and enthusiastic scholars gathered at the court. Buddhism fol- 
lowed with its educational influences, becoming a focus of light 
and culture. As early as 372 a.d. an apostle of northern Buddli- 
ism had penetrated into Liao Tung, and perhaps across the 
Yalu. In 384 a.d. the missionary Marananda, a Thibetan, for- 
mally established temples and monasteries in Hiaksai, in which 
women as well as men became scholastics. Long before this new 
element of civilization was rooted in Shinra or Korai, the faith of 
India was established and flourishing in the Httle kingdom of Hi- 
aksai, so that its influences were felt as far as Japan. The first 



86 COREA. 

teacher of Chinese letters and ethics in Nippon was a Corean 
named Wani, as was also the first missionary who carried the im- 
ages and sutras of northern Buddhism across the Sea of Japan. 
To Hiaksai more than to any other Corean state Japan owes her 
first impulse toward the civilization of the west. 

Hiaksai came into collision with Kokorai as early as 345 a.d., 
at which time also Shinra suffered the loss of several cities. In 
the fifth century a Chinese army, sent by one of the emperors of 
the Wei dynasty to enforce the payment of tribute, was defeated 
by Hiaksai. Such unexpected military results raised the reputa- 
tion of "the eastern savages" so high in the imperial mind, that the 
emperor offered the King of Hiaksai the title of "Great Protector 
of the Eastern Frontier." By this act the independence of the 
little kingdom was virtually recognized. In the sixth century, 
having given and received Chinese aid and comfort in alliance 
with Shinra against Korai, Hiaksai was ravaged in her borders by 
the troops of her irate neighbor on the north. Later on we find 
these two states in peace with each other and allied against Shin- 
ra, which had become a vassal of the Tang emperors of China. 

From this line of China's rulers the kingdoms of Korai and 
Hiaksai were to receive crushing blows. In answer to Shinra's 
prayer for aid, the Chinese emperor, in 660, despatched from 
Shantung a fleet of several hundred sail with 100,000 men on 
board. Against this host from the west the Hiaksai army could 
make little resistance, though they bravely attacked the invaders, 
but only to be beaten. After a victory near the mouth of the 
Rin-yin Biver, the Chinese marched at once to the capital of Hi- 
aksai and again defeated, with terrible slaughter, the provincial 
army. The king fled to the north, and the city being nearly 
empty of defenders, the feeble garrison opened the gates. The 
Tang banners fluttered on all the walls, and another state was ab- 
sorbed in the Chinese empire. For a time Hiaksai, Kke a fly 
snapped up by an angry dog, is lost in China. 

Not long, however, did the little kingdom disappear from 
sight. In 670 a Buddhist priest, fired with patriotism, raised an 
army of monks and priests, and joining Fuku-shin (Fu-sin), a 
brave general, they laid siege to a city held by a large Chinese 
garrison. At the same time they sent word to the emperor of 
Japan praying for succor against the "robber kingdom." They 
also begged that Hosho (Fung), the youthful son of the late king, 
then a hostage and pupil at the mikado's court, might be invested 



EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. --HI AKSAL 37 

with the royal title and sent home. The mikado despatched a 
fleet of 400 junks and a large body of soldiers to escort the royal 
heir homeward. On his arrival Hosho was proclaimed king. 

Meanwhile the priest-army and the forces under Fuku-shin 
had reconquered nearly all their territory, when they suffered a 
severe defeat near the sea-coast from the large Chinese force 
hastily despatched to put down the rebellion. The invaders 
marched . eastward and ejected a junction with the forces of 
Shinra. The prospects of Hiaksai were now deplorable. 

For even among the men of Hiaksai there was no unity of pur- 
pose. Fuku-shin had put the priest-leader to death, which arbi- 
trary act so excited the suspicions of the king that he in turn 
ordered his general to be beheaded. He then sent to Japan, ap- 
pealing for reinforcements. The mikado, willing to help an old 
ally, and fearing that the Chinese, if victorious, might inVade his 
own dominions, quickly responded. The Japanese contingent ar- 
rived and encamped near the mouth of the Han River, prepara- 
tory to a descent by sea upon Shinra. Unsuspecting the near 
presence of an enemy, the allies neglected their usual vigilance. 
A fleet of war-junks, flying the Tang streamers, suddenly ap- 
peared off the camp, and while the Japanese were engaging these, 
the Chinese land forces struck them in flank. Taken by surprise, 
the mikado's warriors were driven like flocks of sheep into the 
water and drowned or shot by the Chinese archers. The Japanese 
vessels were burned as they lay at anchor in the bloody stream, 
and the remnants of the beaten army got back to their islands in 
pitiable fragments. Hosho, after witnessing the destruction of 
his host, fled to Korai, and the country was given over to the 
waste and pillage of the infuriated Chinese. The royal line, after 
thirty generations and nearly seven centuries of rule, became ex- 
tinct. The sites of cities became the habitations of tigers, and 
once fertile flelds were soon overgrown. Large portions of Hiak- 
sai became a wilderness. 

Though the Chinese Government ordered the bodies of those 
killed in war and the white bones of the victims of famine to be 
buried, yet many thousands of Hiaksai families fled elsewhere to 
find an asylum and to found new industries. The people who 
remained on their fertile lands, as well as all Southern Corea, fell 
under the sway of Shinra. 

The fragments of the beaten Japanese army gradually returned 
to their native country or settled in Southern Corea. Thousands 



38 COREi.. 

of tlie people of Hiaksai, detesting the idea of living as slaves oi 
China, accompanied or followed their allies to Japan. On their 
arrival, by order of the mikado, 400 emigrants of both sexes were 
located in the province of Omi, and over 2,000 were distributed in 
the Knanto, or Eastern Japan. These colonies of Coreans founded 
potteries, and their descendants, mingled by blood with the Japan- 
ese, follow the trade of their ancestors. 

In 710 another body of Hiaksai people, dissatisfied with the 
poverty of the country and tempted by the offers of the Japan- 
ese, formed a colony numbering 1,800 persons and emigrated 
to Japan. They were settled in Musashi, the province in which 
Tokio, the modern capital, is situated. Various other emi- 
grations of Coreans to Japan of later date are referred to in the 
annals of the latter country, and it is fair to presume that tens of 
thousands of emigrants from the peninsula fled from the Tang in- 
vasion and mingled with the islanders, producing the composite 
race that inhabit the islands ruled by the mikado. Among the 
refugees were many priests and nuns, who brought their books 
and learning to the .court at Nara, and thus diffused about them a 
literary atmosphere. The establishment of schools, the awaken- 
ing of the Japanese intellect, and the first beginnings of the litera- 
ture of Japan, the composition of their oldest historical books, 
the Kojiki and the Nihongi — all the fruits of the latter half of the 
seventh and early part of the eighth century — are directly trace- 
able to this influx of the scholars of Hiaksai, which being de- 
stroyed by China, lived again in Japan. Even the pronunciation 
of the Chinese characters as taught by the Hiaksai teachers re- 
mains to this day. One of them, the nun Homio, a learned lady, 
made her system so popular among the scholars that even an im- 
perial proclamation against it could not banish it. She established 
her school in Tsushima, a.d. 655, and there taught that system of 
[Chinese] pronunciation [ Go-on] which still holds sway in Japan, 
among the ecclesiastical literati, in opposition to the Kan-on of the 
secular scholars. The Go-on, the older of the two pronunciations, is 
that of ancient North China, the Kan-on is that of mediaeval South- 
em China (Nanking). Corea and Japan having phonetic alpha- 
bets have preserved and stereotyped the ancient Chinese pronun- 
ciation better than the Chinese language itself, since the Chinese 
have no phonetic vrriting, but only ideographic characters, the 
pronunciation of which varies during the progress of centuries. 

Hiaksai had given Buddhism to Japan as early as 552 a.d., but 



' EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— HIAKSAI. 39 

opposition had prevented its spread, the temple was set on fire, 
and the images of Buddha thrown in the river. In 684 one 
Say^ki brought another- image of Buddha from Corea, and Umako, 
son of Inam6, a minister at the mikado's court, enshrined it in a 
chapel on his own grounds. He made Yeben and Simata, two 
Coreans, his priests, and his daughter a nun. They celebrated a 
festival, and henceforth Buddhism ^ grew apace. 

The country toward the sunrise was then a new land to the 
peninsulars, just as "the West" is to us, or Australia is to Eng- 
land ; and Japan made these fugitives welcome. In their train 
came industry, learning, and skill, enriching the island kingdom 
with the best infusion of blood and culture. 

Hiaksai was the first of the three kingdoms that was weak- 
ened by civil war and then fell a victim to Chinese lust of con- 
quest. 

The progress and fall of the other two kingdoms will now be 
narrated. Beginning with Korai, we shall follow its story from 
the year 613 a.d., when the invading hordes of the Tang dynasty 
had been driven out of the peninsula with such awful slaughter 
by the Koraians. 

^ There are colossal stone images at Pe-chiu (Pha-jiu) in the capital prov- 
ince, and at Un-jin in Chung-chong Do. The former, discovered by Lieuten- 
ant J. G. Bernadon, U.S.N. , are in the midst of a fir- wood, and are carved in 
half-figure out of bowlders in place, the heads and caps projecting over the 
tops of the trees. One wears a square cap and the other a round one, from 
which Mr. G. W. Aston conjectures that they symbolize the male and female 
elements in nature (p. 329). At Un-jin in Chung-chong D5 Mr. G. C. Foulke, 
U.S.N., saw, at a distance of fifteen miles, what seemed to be a lighthouse. 
On approach, this half-length human figure proved to be a pinnacle of white 
granite, sixty-four feet high, cut into a representation of Buddha. Similar 
statues may perhaps be discovered elsewhere. Coreans call such figures mi- 
ryek (stone men, as the Chinese characters given in the French-Corean dic- 
tionary read), or miriok^ from the Chinese Mi-U^ or Buddha. (In Japanese, 
the Buddha to come is Miroku-butsu — a verbal coincidence.) Professor Terrien 
de Lacouperie has written upon this theme with great learning. Besides the 
lop-ears, forehead-mark, and traditional countenance seen in the Buddhas of 
Chinese Asia, there is on the Un-jin figure a very high double cap, on which 
are set two slabs of stone joined by a central column, suggesting both the cere- 
monial cap of ancient Chinese ritual and the Indian pagoda-like umbrella. 
These miriok stand in what was once Hiaksai. In his '* Life in Corea," Mr. 
Carles gives a picture of the one at Un-jin. Smaller ones exist near monas- 
teries and temples. 



CHAPTER YL 

EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— KORAI. 

Ajfter the struggle in which the Corean tiger had worsted the 
Western Dragon, early in the seventh century, China and Korai 
were for a generation at peace. The bones of the slain were 
buried, and sacrificial fires for the dead soothed the spirits of the 
victims. The same imperial messenger, who in 622 was sent to 
supervise these offices of religion, also visited each of the courts 
of the three kingdoms. So successful was he in his mission of 
peaceful diplomacy, that each of the Corean states sent envoys 
with tribute and congratulation to the imperial throne. In proof 
of his good wishes, the emperor returned to his vassals all his 
prisoners, and declared that their young men would be re- 
ceived as students in the Imperial University at his capital. 
Henceforth, as in many instances during later centuries, the 
sons of nobles and promising youth from Korai, Shinra, and 
Hiaksai went to study at Nanking, where their envoys met the 
Arab traders. 

Korai having been divided into five provinces, or circuits, 
named respectively the Home, North, South, East, and West divi- 
sions, extended from the Sea of Japan to the Liao River, and en- 
joyed a brief speU of peace, except always on the southern border ; 
for the chronic state of Korai and Shinra was that of mutual hos- 
tility. On the north, beyond the Tumen River, was the kingdom 
of Pu-hai, with which Korai was at peace, and Japan was in inti- 
mate relations, and China at jealous hostility. 

The Chinese court soon began to look with longing eyes on 
the territory of that part of Korai lying west of the Yalu River, 
believing it to be a geographical necessity that it should become 
their scientific frontier, while the emperor cherished the hope of 
soon rectifying it. Though unable to forget the fact that one of 
his predecessors had wasted millions of lives and tons of treasure 
in vainly attemptiag to humble Kokorai, his ambition and pride 



i:poch of the three kingdoms— kokal 41 

spurred him on to wade tkrough slaughter to conquest and re- 
venge. He waited only ior a pretext. 

This time the destinies of the Eastern Kingdom were pro- 
foundly influenced by the character of the feudalism brought into 
it from ancient times, and which was one of the characteristic insti- 
tutions of the Fuyu race. 

The Government of Korai was simply that of a royal house, 
holding, by more or less binding ties of loyalty, powerful nobles, 
who in turn held their lands on feudal tenure. In certain con- 
tingencies these noble land-holders were scarcely less powerful 
than the king himself. 

In 641 one of these liegemen, whose ambition the king had in 
vain attempted to curb and even to put to death, revenged him- 
self by killing the king vdth his own hands. He then proclaimed 
as sovereign the nephew of the dead king, and made himself 
prime minister. Having thus the control of all power in the state, 
and being a man of tremendous physical strength and mental 
ability, all the people submitted quietly to the new order of 
things, and were at the same time diverted, being sent to ravage 
Shinra, annexing all the country down to the 37th parallel. The 
Chinese emperor gave investiture to the new king, but ordered 
this Corean Warwick to recall his troops from invading Shinra, 
the ally of China. The minister paid his tribute loyally, but re- 
fused to acknowledge the right of China to interfere in Corean 
politics. The tribute was then sent back with insult, and war be- 
ing certain to follow, Korai prepared for the worst. War with 
China has been so constant a phenomenon in Corean history that 
a special term, Ho-ran, exists and is common in the national an- 
nals, since the "Chinese wars" have been numbered by the score. 

Again the sails of an invading fleet whitened the waters of the 
Yellow Sea, carrying the Chinese army of chastisement that was 
to land at the head of the peninsula, while two bodies of troops 
were despatched by different routes landward. The Tang em- 
peror was a stanch believer in Whang Ti, the Asiatic equivalent 
of the European doctrine of the divine right of kings to reign — a 
tenet as easily found by one looking for it in the Confucian clas- 
sics, as in the Hebrew scriptures. He professed to be marching 
simply to vindicate the honor of majesty and to punish the regi- 
cide rebel, but not to harm nobles or people. The invaders soon 
overran Liao Tung, and city after city fell. The emperor himself 
accompanied the army and burned his bridges after the crossing 



42 COREA. 

of every river. In spite of the mud and the summer rains he 
steadily pushed his way on, helping with his own hands in the 
works at the sieges of the walled cities — the ruins of which still 
litter the plains of Liao Tung. In one of these, captured only 
after a protracted investment, 10,000 Koraians are said to have 
been slain. In case of submission on summons, or after a slight 
defence, the besieged were leniently and even kindly treated. 
By July all the country west of the Yalu was in possession of the 
Chinese, who had crossed the river and arrived at Anchiu, only 
forty miles north of Ping-an city. 

By tremendous personal energy and a general levy in mass, an 
army of 150,000 Korai men was sent against the Chinese, which 
took up a position on a hill about three miles from the city. The 
plan of the battle that ensued, made by the Chinese emperor him- 
self, was skilfully carried out by his lieutenants, and a total defeat 
of the entrapped Koraian army followed, the slain numbering 
20,000. The next day, with the remnant of his army, amounting 
to 40,000 men, the Koraian general surrendered. Fifty thousand 
horses and 10,000 coats of mail were among the spoils. The foot 
soldiers were dismissed and ordered home, but the Koraian lead- 
ers were made prisoners and marched into China. 

After so crushing a loss in men and material, one might expect 
instant surrender of the besieged city. So far from this, the gar- 
rison redoubled the energy of their defence. In this we see a 
striking trait of the Corean military character which has been no- 
ticed from the era of the Tangs, and before it, down to Admiral 
Eodgers. Chinese, Japanese, French, and Americans have experi- 
enced the fact and marvelled thereat. It is that the Coreans are 
poor soldiers in the open field and exhibit slight proof of personal 
valor. They cannot face a dashing foe nor endure stubborn fight- 
ing. But put the same men behind walls, bring them to bay, and 
the timid stag amazes the hounds. Their whole nature seems re- 
inforced. They are more than brave. Their courage is subKme. 
They fight to the last man, and fling themselves on the bare 
steel when the foe clears the parapet. The Japanese of 1592 
looked on the Corean in the field as a kitten, but in the castle as 
a tiger. The French, in 1866, never found a force that could face 
rifles, though behind walls the same men were invincible. The 
American handful of tars kept at harmless distance thousands of 
black heads in the open, but inside the fort they met giants in 
bravery. No nobler foe ever met American steel. Even when dis- 



, EPOCH OP THE THREE KINGDOMS— KORAI. 43 

armed they fought their enemies with dust and stones until slain 
to the last man. The sailors found that the sheep in the field 
were lions in the fort. 

The Coreans themselves knew both their forte and their foible, 
and so understood how to foil the invader from either sea. Shut 
out from the rival nations on the right hand and on the left by 
the treacherous sea, buttressed on the north by lofty mountains, 
and separated from China by a stretch of barren or broken land, 
the peninsula is easily secure against an invader far from his base 
of supplies. The ancient policy of the Coreans, by which they 
over and over again foiled their mighty foe and finally secured 
their independence, was to shut themselves up in their well-pro- 
visioned cities and castles, and not only beat off but starve away 
their foes. In their state of f eudahsm, when every city and strate- 
gic town of importance was well fortified, this was easily accom- 
plished. The ramparts gave them shelter, and their personal valor 
secured the rest. Reversing the usual process of starving out a 
beleaguered garrison, the besiegers, unable to fight on empty 
stomachs, were at last obliged to raise the siege and go home. 
Long persistence in this resolute policy finally saved Corea 
from the Chinese colossus, and preserved her individuality among 
nations. 

Faithful to their character, as above set forth, the Koraians 
held their own in the city of Anchiu, and the Chinese could make 
no impression upon it. In spite of catapults, scaling ladders, 
movable towers, and artificial mounds raised higher than the 
waUs, the Koraians held out, and by sorties bravely captured or 
destroyed the enemy's works. Not daring to leave such a fortified 
city in their rear, the Chinese could not advance further, while 
their failing provisions and the advent of frost showed them that 
they must retreat. 

Himgrily they turned their faces toward China. 

In spite of the intense chagrin of the foiled Chinese leader, so. 
great was his admiration for the valor of the besieged that he sent 
the Koraian commander a valuable present of rolls of silk. The 
Koraians were unable to pursue the flying invaders, and few feU 
by their weapons. But hunger, the fatigue of crossing impassa- 
ble oceans of worse than Virginia mud, cold winds, and snow 
storms destroyed thousands of the Chinese on their weary home- 
ward march over the mountain passes and quagmires of Liao 
Tung. The net results of the campaign were great glory to Korai ; 



44 COREA. 

and besides the loss of ten cities, 70,000 of her sons were captives 
in China, and 40,000 lay in battle graves. 

According to a custom which Califomians have learned in our 
day, the bones of the Chinese soldiers who died or were killed in 
the campaign were collected, brought into China, and, with due 
sacrificial rites and lamentations by the emperor, solemnly buried 
in their native soil. Irregular warfare still continued between the 
two countries, the offered tribute of Korai being refused, and the 
emperor waiting until his resources would justify him in sending 
another vast fleet and army against defiant Korai. While thus 
waiting he died. 

After a few years of peace, his successor found occasion for 
war, and, in 660 a.d., despatched the expedition which crushed 
Hiaksai, the ally of Korai, and worried, without humbling, the lat- 
ter state. In 664 Korai lost its able leader, the regicide prime 
minister — that rock against which the waves of Chinese invasion 
had dashed again and again in vain. 

His son, who would have succeeded to the office of his father, 
was opposed by his brother. The latter, fleeing to China, became 
guide to the hosts again sent against Korai "to save the people 
and to chastise their rebellious chiefs." This time Korai, without 
a leader, was doomed. The Chinese armies having their rear well 
secured by a good base of supplies, and being led by skilful com- 
manders, marched on from victory to victory, until, at the Yalu 
River, the various detachments united, and breaking the front of 
the Korai army, scattered them and marched on to Ping-an. The 
city surrendered without the discharge of an arrow. The line of 
kings of Korai came to an end after twenty-eight generations, rul- 
ing over 700 years. 

All Korai, vdth its five provinces, its 176 cities, and its four or 
five millions of people, was annexed to the Chinese empire. Tens 
of thousands of Koraian refugees fled into Shinra, thousands into 
Pu-hai, north of the Tumen, then a rising state ; and many to the 
new country of Japan. Desolated by slaughter and ravaged by 
fire and blood, war and famine, large portions of the land lay 
waste for generations. Thus fell the second of the Corean king- 
doms, and the sole dominant state now supreme in the peninsula 
was Shinra, an outline of whose history we shall proceed to give. 



CHAPTEE YIL 

EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— SHINR A. 

When Shinra becomes first known to us from Japanese tradi- 
tion, ter place in the peninsula is in the southeast, comprising por- 
tions of the modern provinces of Kang-wen and Kiung-sang. The 
people in this warm and fertile part of the peninsula had very 
probably sent many colonies of settlers over to the Japanese Isl- 
ands, which lay only a hundred miles off, with Tsushima for a 
stepping-stone. It is probable that the '^rebels" in Kiushiu, so 
often spoken of in old Japanese histories, were simply Coreans or 
their descendants, as, indeed, the majority of the inhabitants of 
Kiushiu originally had been. The Yamato tribe, which gradually 
became paramount in Japan, were probably immigrants of old Ko- 
korai stock, that is, men of the Fuyu race, who had crossed from 
the -north of Corea over the Sea of Japan, to the land of Sunrise, 
just as the Saxons and Engles pushed across the North Sea to 
England. They found the Kumaso, or Kiushiu "rebels," trouble- 
some, mainly because these settlers from the west, or southern 
mainland of Corea, considered themselves to be the righteous 
owners of the island rather than the Yamato people. At all 
events, the pretext that led the mikado Chiu-ai, who is said to 
have reigned from 192 to 200 a.d., to march against them was, that 
these people in Kiushiu would not acknowledge his authority. 
His wife, the Amazonian queen Jingu, was of the opinion that the 
root of the trouble was to be found in the peninsula, and that the 
army should be sent across the sea. Her husband, having been 
killed in battle, the queen was left to carry out her purposes, 
which she did at the date said to be 202 a.d. She set sail from 
Hizen, and reached the Asian mainland probably at the harbor of 
Fusan. Unable to resist so well-appointed a force, the king of 
Shinra submitted and became the declared vassal of Japan. En- 
voys from Hiaksai and another of the petty kingdoms also came 
to the Japanese camp and made friends with the invaders. After 



46 COREA. 

a two montlis' stay, tlie victorious fleet, riclily laden witli precious 
gifts and spoil, returned. 

How much of truth there is in this narrative of Jingu it is diffi- 
cult to tell The date given cannot be trustworthy. The truth 
seems at least this, that Shinra was far superior to the Japan of 
the early Christian centuries. Buddhism was formally established 
in Shinra in the year 528 ; and as early as the sixth century a steady 
stream of immigrants — traders, artists, scholars, and teachers, and 
later Buddhist missionaries — passed from Shinra into Japan, in- 
terrupted only by the wars which from time to time broke out. 
The relations between Nippon and Southern Corea will be more 
fully related in another chapter, but it will be well to remember 
that the Japanese always laid claim to the Corean peninsula, and 
to Shinra especially, as a tributary nation. They supported that 
claim not only whenever embassies from the two nations met at the 
court of China, but they made it a more or less active part of their 
national policy down to the year 1876. Many a bloody war grew 
out of this claim, but on the other hand many a benefit accrued 
to Japan, if not to Shinra. 

Meanwhile, in the peninsula the leading state expanded her 
borders by gradual encroachments upon the little " kingdom " of 
Mimana to the southwest and upon Hiaksai on the north. The 
latter, having always considered Shinra to be inferior, and even a 
dependant, war broke out between the two states as soon as Shinra 
assumed perfect independence. Korai and Hiaksai leagued them- 
selves against Shinra, and the game of war continued, with various 
shifting of the pieces on the board, until the tenth century. The 
three rival states mutually hostile, the Japanese usually friends to 
Hiaksai, the Chinese generally helpers of Shinra, the northern 
nations beyond the Tumen and Sungari assisting Korai, varying 
their operations in the field with frequent alliances and counter- 
plots, make but a series of dissolving- views of battle and strife, 
into the details of which it is not profitable to enter. Though 
Korai and Hiaksai felt the heaviest blows from China, Shinra was 
harried oftenest by the armies of her neighbors and by the Japan- 
ese. Indeed, from a tributary point of view, it seems question- 
able whether her alliances with China were of any benefit to her. 
In times of peace, however, the blessings of education and civiliza- 
tion flowed freely from her great patron. Though farthest east 
from China, it seems certain that Shinra was, in many respects, 
the most highly civilized of the three states. Especially was this 



EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS— SHINRA. 47 

the case during the Tang era (618-905 a.d.), when the mutual re- 
lations between China and Shinra were closest, and arts, letters, 
and customs were borrowed most Uberally by the pupil state. 
Even at the present time, in the Corean idiom, "Tang-yang" (times 
of the Tang and Yang dynasties) is a synonym of prosperity. 
The term for "Chinese," applied to works of art, poetry, coins, 
fans, and even to a certain disease, is "Tang," instead of the 
ordinary word for China, since this famous dynastic title repre- 
sents to the Corean mind, as to the student of Kathayan his- 
tory, one of the most brilliant epochs known to this longest-lived 
of empires. What the names of Plantagenet and Tudor repre- 
sent to an Anglo-Saxon mind, the terms Tang and Sung are to a 
Corean. 

During this period. Buddhism v*^as being steadily propagated, 
until it became the prevailing cult of the nation. Reserving the 
story of its progress for a special chapter, we notice in this place 
but one of its attendant blessings. In the civilization of a nation, 
the possession of a vernacular alphabet must be acknowledged to 
be one of the most potent factors for the spread of intelligence 
and culture. It is believed by many linguists that the Choc- 
taws and Coreans have the only two perfect alphabets in the 
world. It is agreed by natives of Cho-sen that their most pro- 
found scholar and ablest man of intellect was Chul-chong, a 
statesman at the court of Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra. This 
famous penman, a scholar in the classics and ancient languages of 
India as well as China, is credited with the invention of the Nido, 
or Corean syllabary, one of the simplest and most perfect " alpha- 
bets " in the world. It expresses the sounds of the Corean lan- 
guage far better than the kata-kana of Japan expresses Japanese. 
Chul-chong seems to have invented the Nido syllabary by giving a 
phonetic value to a certain number of selected Chinese characters, 
which are ideographs expressing ideas but not sounds. Perhaps 
the Sanskrit alphabet suggested the model both for manner of use 
and for forms of letters. The Nido is composed almost entirely 
of straight lines and circles, and the letters belonging to the same 
class of labials, dentals, etc., have a similarity of form easily 
recognized. The Coreans state that the Nido was invented in 
the early part of the eighth century, and that it was based on the 
Sanskrit alphabet. It is worthy of note that, if the date given be 
true, the Japanese kata-kana, invented a century later, was per- 
baps ^ggested by the Corean. 



48 CORBA. 

One remarkable effect of the use of phonetic writing in Corea 
and Japan has been to stereotype, and thus to preserve, the ancient 
sounds and pronunciation of words of the Chinese, which the latter 
have lost. These systems of writing outside of China have served, 
like Edison's phonographs, in registering and reproducing the 
manner in which the Chinese spoke, a whole millennium ago. 
This fact has already opened a fertile field of research, and may 
yet yield rich treasures of discovery to the sciences of history and 
linguistics. 

Certainly, however, we may gather that the Tang era was one 
of learning and literary progress in Corea, as in Japan — all coun- 
tries in pupilage to China feeling the glow of literary splendor in 
which the Middle Kingdom was then basking. The young nobles 
were sent to obtain their education at the court and schools of 
Nanking, and the fair damsels of Shinra bloomed in the harem of 
the emperor. Imperial ambassadors frequently visited the court 
of this kingdom in the far east. Chinese costume and etiquette 
were, for a time, at least, made the rigorous rule at court. On one 
occasion, in 653 a.d., the envoy from Shinra to the mikado came 
arrayed in Chinese dress, and, neglecting the ceremonial forms of 
the Japanese court, attempted to observe those of China. The 
mikado was highly irritated at the supposed insult. The premier 
even advised that the Corean be put to death ; but better counsels 
prevailed. During the eighth and ninth centuries this flourish- 
ing kingdom was well known to the Arab geographers, and it is 
evident that Mussulman travellers -Ndsited Shinra or resided in 
the cities of the peninsula for purposes of trade and commerce, as 
has been shown before. 

Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra, was a brilliant centre of art 
and science, of architecture and of literary and religious light. 
Imposing temples, grand monasteries, lofty pagodas, halls of 
scholars, magnificent gateways and towers adorned the city. In 
campaniles, equipped with water-clocks and with ponderous bells 
and gongs, which, when struck, flooded the valleys and hiU-tops 
with a rich resonance, the sciences of astronomy and horoscopy 
were cultivated. As from a fountain, rich streams of knowledge 
flowed from the capital of Shinra, both over the peninsula and to 
the court of Japan. Even after the decay of Shinra's power in 
the political unity of the whole peninsula, the nation looked upon 
Kion-chiu as a sacred city. Her noble temples, halls, and towers 
stood in honor and repair, enshrining the treasures of India, Per- 



'epoch OF THE THREE KINGDOMS— SHINRA. 49 

sia, and Cliina, until the ruthless Japanese torch laid them in 
ashes in 1596. 

The generation of Corean people during the seventh century, 
when the Chinese hordes desolated large portions of the penin- 
sula and crushed out Hiaksai and Korai, saw the borders of 
Shinra extending from the Everlasting White Mountains to the 
Island of Tsushima, and occupying the entire eastern half of the 
peninsula. From the beginning of the eighth imtil the tenth 
century, Shinra is the supreme state, and the political power of 
the Eastern Kingdom is represented by her alone. Her ambition 
tempted, or her Chinese master commanded, her into an invasion 
of the kingdom of Pu-hai beyond her northern border, 733 a.d. 
Her armies crossed the Tumen, but met with such spirited resist- 
ance that only half of them returned. Shinra's desire of con- 
quest in that direction was appeased, and for two centuries the 
land had rest from blood. 

Until Shinra fell, in 934 a.d., and united Corea rose on the 
ruins of the three kingdoms, the history of this state, as found in 
the Chinese annals, is simply a list of her kings, who, of course, 
received investiture from China. On the east, the Japanese, hav- 
ing ceased to be her pupils in civilization during times of peace, 
as in time of war they were her conquerors, turned their atten- 
tion to Nanking, receiving directly therefrom the arts and sci- 
ences, instead of at second-hand through the Corean peninsula. 
They found enough to do at home in conquering all the tribes in 
the north and east and centralizing their system of government 
after the model of the Tangs in China. For these reasons the 
sources of information concerning the eighth and ninth centuries 
fail, or rather it is more exact to say that the history of Shinra is 
that of peace instead of war. In 869 we read of pirates from her 
shores descending upon the Japanese coast to plimder the tribute 
ships from Biizen province, and again, in 893, that a fleet of fifty 
junks, manned by these Corean rovers, was driven off from Tsus- 
hima by the Japanese troops, with the loss of three hundred slain. 
Another descent of "foreign pirates," most probably Coreans, 
upon Iki Island, in 1019, is recorded, the strangers being beaten 
off by reinforcements from the mainland. The very existence of 
these marauders is, perhaps, a good indication that the power of 
the Shinra government was falling into decay, and that lawless- 
ness within the kingdom was preparing the way for some mighty 
hand to not only seize the existing state, but to unite aU Corea 



60 COREA. 

into political, as well as geographical, unity. In the far north 
another of those great intermittent movements of population was 
in process, which, though destroying the kingdom of Puhai beyond 
the Tumen, was to repeople the desolate land of Korai, and again 
call a dead state to aggressive life. From the origin to the fall of 
Shinra there were three royal families of fifty-five kings, ruling 
nine hundred and ninety-three years, or seven years less than a 
millennium. 

Despite the modern of&cial name of the kingdom, Cho-seuj the people of 
Corea still call their country Gaoli, or Korai, clinging to the ancient name. 
In this popular usage, unless we are mistaken, there is a flavor of genuine 
patriotism. Cho-sen does indeed mean Morning Calm, but the impression 
made on Western ears, and more vividly upon the eye by means of the 
Chinese characters, is apt to mislead. The term is less a reflection of geo- 
graphical position than of the inward emotions of those who first of all were 
more Chinese than Corean in spirit, and of a desire for China's favor. The 
term Cho-sen savors less of dew and dawn than of policy and prosy fact. It is 
probable, despite the Corean's undoubted love of nature and beautiful scenery, 
that Americans and Europeans have been led astray as to the real significance 
of the phrase "morning calm." At the bottom, it means rather peace with 
China than the serenity of dewy morning. Audience of the Chinese emperor 
to his vassals is always given at daybreak, and to be graciously received after 
the long and tedious prostrations is an auspicious beginning as of a day of heav- 
en upon earth. To the founder of Corea, Ki Tsze, the gracious favor of the 
Chow emperor was as ''morning calm ; " and so to Ni Taijo, in 1392 A.D., was 
the sunshine of the Ming emperor's favor. In both instances the name Cho- 
sen given to their realm had, in reality, immediate reference to the dayspring 
of China's favor, and ''the calm of dawn" to the smile of the emperor. 



CHAPTEE Yin. 

JAPAN AND COREA. 

It is as nearly impossible to write the history of Corea and ex- 
clude Japan, as to tell the story of mediseval England and leave 
out France. Not alone does the finger of sober history point di- 
rectly westward as the immediate source of much of what has been 
hitherto deemed of pure Japanese origin, but the fountain-head of 
Japanese mythology is found in the Sungari valley, or under the 
shadows of the Ever- White Mountains. The first settler of Japan, 
like him of Fuyu, crosses the water upright upon the back of a 
fish, and brings the rudiments of literature and civilization with 
him. The remarkable crocodiles and sea-monsters, from which 
the gods and goddesses are born and into which they change, the 
dragons and tide-jewels and the various mystic symbols which 
they employ to work their spells, the methods of divination and 
system of prognostics, the human sacrifices and the manner of 
their rescue, seem to be common to the nations on both sides of 
the Sea of Japan, and point to a common heritage from the same 
ancestors. Language comes at last with her revelations to furnish 
proofs of identity. 

The mischievous Susanoo, so famous in the pre-historic legends, 
told in the Kojiki, haK scamp, half benefactor, who planted all 
Japan with trees, brought the seeds from which they grew from 
Corea. His rescue of the maiden doomed to be devoured by the^ 
eight-headed dragon (emblem of water, and symbolical of the sea 
and rivers) reads like a gallant fellow saving one of the human 
beings who for centuries, until the now ruling dynasty abolished 
the custom, were sacrificed to the sea on the Corean coast front- 
ing Japan. In Kioto, on Gi-on Street, there is a temple which 
tradition declares was "founded in 656 a.d. by a Corean envoy in 
honor of Susanoo, to whom the name of Go-dzu Tennq (Heavenly 
King of Go-dzu) was given, because he was originally worshipped 
in Go-dzu Mountain in Corea." 



52 COREA. 

Dogs are not held in any honor in Japan, as they were an- 
ciently in Kokorai. Except the silk-haired, pug-nosed, and large- 
eyed chin, which the average native does not conceive as canine, 
the dogs run at large, ownerless, as in the Levant ; and share the 
work of street scavenging with the venerated crows. Yet there 
are two places of honor in which the golden and stone effigies 
of this animal — highly ideaHzed indeed, but stiU inu — are en- 
throned. 

The ama-inu, or heavenly dogs, in fanciful sculpture of stone 
or gilt wood, represent guardian dogs. They are found in pairs 
guarding the entrances to miya or temples. As all miya (the 
name also of the mikado's residence) were originally intended to 
serve as a model or copy of the palace of the mikado and a re- 
minder of the divinity of his person and throne, it is possible that 
the ama-inu imitated the golden Corean dogs which support and 
guard the throne of Japan. Access to the shrine was had only by 
passing these two heavenly dogs. These creatures are quite dis- 
tinct from the "dogs of Fo," or the "lions" that flank the gate- 
ways of the magistrate's office in China. Those who have had 
audience of the mikado in the imperial throne-room, as the writer 
had in January, 1873, have noticed at the foot of the throne, serv- 
ing as legs or supports to the golden chair, on which His Majesty 
sits, two dogs sitting on their haunches, and upright on their fore- 
legs. These fearful-looking creatures, with wide-open mouths, 
hair curled in tufts, especially around the front neck, and with 
tails bifurcated at their upright ends, are called "Corean dogs." 
For what reason placed there we know not. It may be in witness 
of the conquest of Shinra by the empress Jingu, who called the 
king of Shinra "the dog of Japan," or it may point to some for- 
gotten symboHsm in the past, or typify the vassalage of Corea — so 
long a fundamental dogma in Japanese politics. It is certainly 
strange to see this creature, so highly honored in Fuyu and dis- 
honored among the vulgar in Japan, placed beneath the mikado's 
throne. 

The Japanese laid claim to Corea from the second century 
imtil the 27th of February, 1876. On that day the mikado's min- 
ister plenipotentiary signed the treaty, recognizing Cho-sen as an 
independent nation. Through aU the seventeen centuries which, 
according to their annals, elapsed since their armies first com- 
pelled the vassalage of their neighbor, the Japanese regarded the 
states of Corea as tributary. Time and again they enforced their 



JAPAN AND CORBA. 53 

claim witli bloody invasion, and wlien through a more enlightened 
policy the rulers voluntarily acknow^ledged their former enemy as 
an equal, the decision cost Japan almost immediately afterward 
seven months of civil war, 20,000 lives, and fifty millions of dol- 
lars in treasure. The mainspring of the " Satsuma rebellion " of 
1877 was the official act of friendship by treaty, and the refusal of 
the Tokio Government to make war on Corea. 

From about the beginning of the Christian era until the fif- 
teenth century the relations between the two nations were very 
olose and active. Alternate peace and war, mutual assistance given, 
and embassies sent to and fro are recorded with lively frequency 
in the early Japanese annals, especially the Nihongi and Kojiki. 
A more or less continual stream of commerce and emigration 
seems to have set in from the peninsula. Some vnriters of high 
authority, who are also comparative students of the languages of 
the- two countries, see in these events the origin of the modern 
Japanese. They interpret them to mean nothing less than the 
peopling of the archipelago by continental tribes passing through 
the peninsula, and landing in Japan at various points along the 
coast from Kiushiu to Kaga. Some of them think that Japan was 
settled wholly and only by Tungusic races of Northeastern Asia 
coming from or through Corea. They base their belief not only 
on the general stream and tendency of Japanese tradition, but also 
and more on the proofs of language. 

The first mention of Corea in the Japanese annals occurs in 
the fifth volume of the Nihongi, and is the perhaps half-fabulous 
narrative of ancient tradition. In the 65th year of the reign of 
the tenth mikado, Sujin (97-30 b.c.), a boat fiUedwith people from 
the west appeared off the southern point of Cho-shiu, near the 
modern town of Shimonoseki. They would not land there, but 
steered their course from cape to cape along the coast imtil they 
reached the Bay of Keji no Wara in Echizen, near the modern 
city of Tsuruga. Here they disembarked and announced them- 
selves from Amana Sankan (Amana of the Three Han or King- 
doms) in Southern Corea. They unpacked their treasures of finely 
wrought goods, and their leader made offerings to the mikado 
Sujin. These immigrants remained five years in Echizen, not 
far from the city of Fukui, till 28 b.c. Before leaving- Japan, 
they presented themselves in the capital for a farewell audience. 
The mikado Mimaki, having died three years before, the visi- 
tors were requested on their return to call their country Mimana, 



54 COREA. 

after their patron, as a memorial of their stay in Japan. To 
this they assented, and on their return named their district 
Mimana. 

Some traditions state that the first Corean envoy had a horn 
growing out of his forehead, and that since his time, and on ac- 
count of it, the bay near which he dwelt was named Tsunaga (Horn 
Bay) now corrupted into Tsuruga. 

It may be added that nearly all mythical characters or heroes 
in Japanese and Chinese history are represented as having one or 
more very short horns growing out of their heads, and are so de- 
lineated in native art. 

Six years later an envoy from Shinra arrived, also bringing pre- 
sents to the mikado. These consisted of mirrors, jade stone, 
swords, and other precious articles, then common in Corea but 
doubtless new in Japan. 

According to the tradition of the Kojiki (Book of Ancient Le- 
gend^) the fourteenth mikado, Chiu-ai (a.d. 192-200) was holding 
his court at Tsuruga in Echizen, in a.d. 194, when a rebellion 
broke out in Kiushiu. He marched at once into Kiushiu, against 
the rebels, and there fell by disease or arrow. His consort, Jingu 
Kogo, had a presentiment that he ought not to go into Kiushiu, 
as he would surely fail if he did, but that he should strike at the 
root of the trouble and sail at once to the west. 

After his death she headed the Japanese army and, leading the 
troops in person, quelled the revolt. She then ordered all the 
available forces of her realm to assemble for an invasion of Shinra. 
Japanese modern writers have laid great stress upon the fact that 
Shinra began the aggressions which brought on war, and in this 
fact justify Jingu's action and Japan's right to hold Corea as an 
honestly acquired possession. 

All being ready, the doughty queen regent set sail from the 
coast of Hizen, in Japan, in the tenth month a. d. 202, and beached 
the fleet safely on the coast of Shinra. The King of Shinra, accus- 
tomed to meet only with men from the rude tribes of Kiushiu, was 
surprised to see so well-appointed an army and so large a fleet from 
a land to the eastward. Struck with terror he resolved at once to 
submit. Tying his hands in token of submission and in presence 
of the queen Jingu, he declared himseK the slave of Japan. Jingu 
caused her bow to be suspended over the gate of the palace of the 
king in sign of his submission. It is even said that she wrote 
on the gate " The King of Shinra is the dog of Japan." Perhaps 



JAPAN AND CORE A. 55 

these are historic words, which find their meaning to-day in the 
two golden dogs forming part of the mikado's throne, like the 
Scotch *' stone of Scone," under the coronation chair in Westmin- 
ster Abbey. 

The followers of Jingu evidently expected a rich booty, but 
after so peaceful a conquest the empress ordered that no looting 
should be allowed, and no spoil taken except the treasures consti- 
tuting tribute. She restored the king to the throne as her vassal, 
and the tribute was then collected and laden on eighty boats with 
hostages for future annual tribute. The offerings comprised pic- 
tures, works of elegance and art, mirrors, jade, gold, silver, and 
silk fabrics. 

Preparations were now made to conquer Hiaksai also, when 
Jingu was surprised to receive the volimtary submission and offers 
of tribute of this country. 

The Japanese army remained in Corea only two months, but 
this brief expedition led to great and lasting results. It gave the 
Japanese a keener thirst for martial glory, it opened their eyes to 
a higher state of arts and civilization. From this time forth there 
flowed into the islands a constant stream of Corean emigrants, who 
gave a great impulse to the spirit of improvement in Japan. The 
Japanese accept the story of Jingu and her conquest as sound 
history, and adorn their greenback paper money with pictures of 
her foreign exploits. Critics reject many elements in the tradi- 
tion, such as her controlling the waves and drowning the Shinra 
army by the jewels of the ebbing and the flowing tide,^ and the 
delay of her accouchement by a magic stone carried in her girdle. 
The Japanese ascribe the glory of victory to her then unborn babe, 
afterward deified as Ojin, god of war, and worshipped by Buddhists 
as Hachiman or the Eight-bannered Buddha. Yet many temples 
are dedicated to Jingu, one especially famous is near Hiogo, and 
Koraiji (Corean village) near Oiso, a few miles from Yokohama, ■ 
has another which was at first built in her honor. Evidently the 
core of the narrative of conquest is fact. 

At the time when the faint, dim light of trustworthy tradition 
dawns, we find the people inhabiting the Japanese archipelago to 
be roughly divided, as to their political status, into four classes. 

In the central province around Kioto ruled a kingly house — 

^ The story, told in full in the Heike Mcmogatari^ is given in English in 
" Japanese Fairy World." 



56 



COREA. 



the mikado and his family — with tributary nobles or feudal chiefs 
holding their lands on military tenure. This is the ancient classic 
land and realm of Yamato. Four other provinces adjoining it 
have always formed the core of the empire, and are called the Go- 
Kinai, or five home provinces, suggesting the five clans of Kokorai. 
To the north and east stretched the Uttle known and less civil- 
ized region, peopled by tribes of kindred blood and speech, who 




Map of Ancient Japan and Corea. 

spoke nearly the same language as the Yamato tribes, and who 
had probably come at some past time from the same ancestral 
seats in Manchuria, and called the Kuan-to, or region east {to) of 
the barrier (kuan) at Ozaka ; or poetically Adzuma. 

StiU further north, on the main island and in Yezo, lived the 
Ainos or Ebisii, probably the aborigines of the soil — the straight- 
eyed men whose descendants still live in Yezo and the Kuriles. 



JAPAN AND COREA. 57 

The northern and eastern tribes were first conquered and thor- 
oughly subdued by the Yamato tribes, after which all the far nortl: 
was overrun and the Ainos subjugated. 

In the extreme south of the main island of Japan and in Kiu- 
shiu, then called Kumaso by the Yamato people, lived a numbed: 
of tribes of perhaps the same ethnic stock as the Yamato Japan- 
ese, but further removed. Their progenitors had probably de- 
scended from Manchuria through Corea to Japan. Their blood and 
speech, however, were more mixed by infusions from Malay and 
southern elements. Into Kiushiu — ^it being nearest to the conti- 
nent — the peninsulars were constantly coming and mingling with 
the islanders. 

The allegiance of the Kiushiu tribes to the royal house of Ya- 
mato was of a very loose kind. The history of these early centu- 
ries, as shown in the annals of Nihon, is but a series of revolts 
against the distant warrior mikado, whose life was chiefly one of 
war. He had often to leave his seat in the central island to march 
at the head of his followers to put down rebellions or to conquer 
new tribes. Over these, when subdued, a prince chosen by the 
conqueror was set to rule, who became a feudatory of the mikado. 

The attempts of the Yamato sovereign to wholly reduce the 
Kiushiu tribes to submission, were greatly frustrated by their 
stout resistance, fomented by emissaries from Shinra, who insti- 
gated them to "revolt," while adventurers from the Corean main- 
land came over in large numbers and joined the "rebels," who 
were, in one sense, their own compatriots. 

From the time of Jingu, if the early dates in Japanese history 
are to be trusted, may be said to date that belief, so firmly fixed 
in the Japanese mind, that Corea is, and always was since Jingu's 
time, a tributary and dependency of Japan. This idea, akin to 
that of the claim of the English kings on France, led to frequent , 
expeditions from the third to the sixteenth century, and which, 
even as late as 1874, 1875, and 1877, lay at the root of three civil 
wars. 

All these expeditions, sometimes national, sometimes filibuster- 
ing, served to drain the resources of Japan, though many impulses 
to development and higher civilization were thus gained, espe 
cially in the earlier centuries. It seemed, until 1877, almost im- 
possible to eradicate from the military mind of Japan the convic- 
tion that to surrender Corea was cowardice and a stain on the 
national honor. But time will show, as it showed centuries ago 



58 COREA. 

in England, that the glory and prosperity of the conqueror were 
increased, not diminished, when Japan relinquished all claim on 
her continental neighbor and treated her as an equal. 

The Coreans taught the Japanese the arts of peace, while the 
Coreans profited from their neighbors to improve in the business of 
war. "We read that, in 316 a.d., a Corean ambassador, bringing 
the usual tribute, presented to the mikado a shield of iron which 
he believed to be invulnerable to Japanese arrows. The mikado 
called on one of his favorite marksmen to practice in the presence 
of the envoy. The shield was suspended, and the archer, drawing 
bow, sent a shaft through the iron skin of the buckler to the as- 
tonishment of the visitor. In all their battles the Coreans were 
rarely able to stand in open field before the archers from over the 
sea, who sent true cloth-yard shafts from their oak and bamboo 
bows. 

The paying of tribute to a foreign country is never a pleasant 
duty to perform, though in times of prosperity and good harvests 
it is not difficult. In periods of scarcity from bad crops it is well 
nigh impossible. To insist upon its payment is to provoke rebel- 
lion. Instances are indeed given in Japanese history where the 
conquerors not only remitted the tribute but even sent ship loads 
of rice and barley to the starving Coreans. When, however, for 
reasons not deemed sufficient, or out of sheer defiance, their vas- 
sals refused to discharge their dues, they again felt the iron hand 
of Japan in war. During the reign of Yuriaki, the twenty-second 
mikado (a.d. 457-477), the three states failed to pay tribute. A 
Japanese army landed in Corea, and conquering Hiaksai, com- 
pelled her to return to her duty. The campaign was less suc- 
cessful in Shinra and Korai, for after the Japanese had left the 
Corean shores the " tribute " was sent only at intervals, and the 
temper of the half-conquered people was such that other expe- 
ditions had to be despatched to inflict chastisement and compel 
payment. 

The gallant but vain succor given by the Japanese to Hiaksai 
during the war with the Chinese, in the sixth century, which re- 
sulted in the destruction of the little kingdom, has already been 
detailed. Among the names, forever famous in Japanese art and 
tradition, of those who took part in this expedition are Sat6-hiko 
and Kasi-wad6. The former sailed away from Hizen in the year 
536, as one of the mikado's body-guard to assist their allies the 
men of Hiaksai. A poetical legend recounts that his wife, Sayo- 



JAPAN AND CORBA. 59 

liim6, climbed tlie hills of Matsura to catcli the last glimpse of his 
receding sails. Thus intently gazing, with straining eyes, she 
turned to stone. The peasants of the neighborhood still discern 
in the weathern-worn rocks, high up on the cliffs, the figure of a 
lady in long traihng court dress with face and figure eagerly bent 
over the western waves. , Not only is the name Matsura Sayohime 
the symbol of devoted love, but from this incident the famous 
author Bakin constructed his romance of "The Great Stone Spirit 
of Matsura." 

Kasiwade, who crossed over to do "frontier service " in the 
peninsula a few years later, was driven ashore by a snow squall at 
an unknown part of the coast. While in this defenceless condi- 
tion his camp was invaded by a tiger, which carried off and de- 
voured his son, a lad of tender age. Kasiwade at once gave chase 
and followed the beast to the mountains and into a cave. The 
tiger leaping out upon him, the wary warrior bearded him with 
his left hand, and buried his dirk in his throat. Then finish- 
ing him with his sabre, he skinned the brute and sent home the 
trophy. From olden times Cho-sen is known to Japanese chil- 
dren only as a land of tigers, while to the soldier the "marshal's 
baton carried in his knapsack " is a tiger-skin scabbard, the emblem 
and possession of rank. 

As the imperial court of Japan looked upon Shinra and Hiak- 
sai as outlying vassal states, the frequent mihtary movements 
across the sea were reckoned under "frontier service," Hke that 
beyond the latitude of Sado in the north of the main island, or in 
Kiushiu in the south. "The three countries " of Corea were far 
nearer and more familiar to the Japanese soldiers than were Yezo 
or the Riu Kiu Islands, which were not part of the empire till 
several centuries afterward. Kara Kuni, the country of Kara 
(a corruption of Korai ?), as they now call China, was then ap- 
plied to Corea. Not a little of classic poetry and legend in 
the Yamato language refers to this western frontier beyond the 
sea. The elegy on Ihemaro, the soldier-prince, who died at Iki 
Island on the voyage over, and that on the death of the Corean 
nun Riguwan, have been put into English verse by Mr. Cham- 
berlain (named after the English explorer and writer on Corea, 
Basil Hall), in his "Classical Poetry of the Japanese." This 
Corean lady left her home in 714, and for twenty-one years found 
a home with the mikado's Prime Minister, Otomo, and his wife, at 
Kara. She died in 735, while her hosts were away at the mineral 



60 COREA. 

springs of Arima, near Kobe ; and the elegy was written by their 
daughter. One stanza describes her hfe in the new country. 

" And here with aliens thou didst choose to dwell, 
Year in, year out, in deepest sympathy ; 
And here thou builtest thee a holy cell. 

And so the peaceful years went gliding by." 

An interesting field of research is still open to the scholar who 
will point out all the monuments of Corean origin or influence in 
the mikado's empire, in the arts and sciences, household customs, 
diet and dress, or architecture ; in short, what by nature or the 
hand of man has been brought to the land of Sunrise from that of 
Morning Calm. One of the Corean princes, who settled in Japan 
early in the seventh century, founded a family which afterward 
ruled the famous province of Nagato or Choshiu. One of his de- 
scendants welcomed Francis Xavier, and aided his work by gifts of 
ground and the privilege of preaching. Many of the temples in 
Kioto still contain images, paintings, and altar furniture brought 
from Corea. The "Pheasant Bridge "still keeps its name from 
bygone centuries ; in a garden near by pheasants were kept for the 
supply of the tables of the Corean embassies. The Arab and Per- 
sian treasures of art and fine workmanship, in the imperial archives 
and museums of Nara, which have excited the wonder of foreign 
visitors, are most probably among the gifts or purchases from 
Shinra, where these imports were less rare. A Buddhist monk 
named Shiuho has gathered up the traditions and learning of the 
subject, so far as it illustrated his faith, and in " Precious Jewels 
from a Neighboring Country," published in 1586, has written a 
narrative of the introduction of Buddhism from Corea and its liter- 
ary and missionary influences upon Japan. 

Under the chapters on Art and Eeligion we shall resume this 
topic. As earnestly as the Japanese are now availing themselves of 
the science and progress of Christendom in this nineteenth cen- 
tury, so earnestly did they borrow the culture of the west, that is 
of Corea and China, a thousand years ago. 

The many thousands of Coreans, who, during the first ten centu- 
ries of the Christian era, but especially in the seventh, eighth, and 
ninth, settled in Japan, lived peaceably with the people of their 
adopted country, and loyally obeyed the mikado's rule. An exception 
to this course occurred in 820, when seven hundred men who some 
time before had come from Shinra to Totomi and Suruga revolted, 



JAPAN AND CORBA. 61 

killed many of the Japanese, seized the rice in the store-houses, 
and put to sea to escape. The people of Musashi and Sagami pur- 
sued and attacked them, putting many of them to death. 

The general history of the Coreans in Japan divides itself into 
two parts. Those who came as voluntary immigrants in time of 
peace were in most cases skilled workmen or farmers, who settled 
in lands or in villages granted them, and were put on political and 
social equality with the mikado's subjects. They founded indus- 
tries, intermarried with the natives, and their identity has been 
lost in the general body of the Japanese people. 

With the prisoners taken in war, and with the laborers im- 
pressed into their service and carried off by force, the case was far 
different. These latter were set apart in villages by themselves — 
an outcast race on no social equality with the people. At first 
they were employed to feed the imperial falcons, or do such 
menial work, but under the ban of Buddhism, which forbids the 
destruction of hfe and the handling of flesh, they became an ac- 
cursed race, the " Etas " or pariahs of the nation. They were the 
butchers, skinners, leather-makers, and those whose business it was 
to handle corpses of criminals and all other defiling things. They 
exist to-day, not greatly changed in blood, though in costume, lan- 
guage, and general appearance, it is not possible to distinguish 
them from Japanese of purest blood. By the humane edict of the 
mikado, in 1868, granting them all the rights of citizenship, their 
social condition has greatly improved. 

From the ninth century onward to the sixteenth, the relations 
of the two countries seem to be unimportant. Japan was engaged 
in conquering northward the barbarians of her main island and 
Yezo. Her intercourse, both political and religious, grew to be 
so direct with the court of China, that Corea, in the Japanese 
annals, sinks out of sight except at rare intervals. Nihon in- 
creased in wealth and civilization while Cho-sen remained station- 
ary or retrograded. In the nineteenth century the awakened Sun- 
rise Kingdom has seen her former self in the hermit nation, and 
has stretched forth willing hands to do for her neighbor now, what 
Corea did for Japan in centuries long gone by. 

Still, it must never be forgotten that Corea was not only the 
bridge on which civilization crossed from China to the archipelago, 
but was most probably the pathway of migration by which the 
rulers of the race now inhabiting Nihon reached it from their an- 
cestral seats around the Sungari and the Ever-White Mountains. 



62 COREA. 

True, it is not absolutely certain whether the homeland of the mi- 
kado's ancestors lay southward in the sea, or westward among the 
mountains, but that the mass of the Corean and Japanese people 
are more closely alHed in blood than either are with the Chinese, 
Manchius, or Malays, seems to be proved, not only by language 
and physical traits, but by the whole course of the history of both 
nations, and by the testimony of the Chinese records. Both Co- 
reans and Japanese have inherited the peculiar institutions of their 
Fuyu ancestors — that race which alone of all the peoples sprung 
from Manchuria migrated toward the rising, instead of toward' the 
setting, sun. 



CHAPTER IX. 

KORAI, OR UNITED COREA. 

The fertile and well-watered region drained by the Amur River 
xnd its tributaries, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Lake Bai- 
kal, covers the ancestral seats of many nations, and is perhaps the 
home of nations yet to arise. R may be likened to a great inter- 
mittent geyser-spring which, at intervals, overflows with terrific 
force and volume. The movements of population southward seem, 
on a review of Chinese and Corean history, almost as regnilar as a 
law of nature. As the conquerors from the central Asian plateaus 
have over and over again descended into India, as the barbarians 
overran the Roman empire, so out of the region drained by the 
Amur and its tributaries have burst forth, time and again, floods of 
conquest to overwhelm the rich plains of China. Or, if we regard 
the flowery and grassy lands of Manchuria and beyond as a great 
hive, full of busy life which, from the pressure of increasing num- 
bers, must swarm off to relieve the old home, we shall have a true 
illustration. Time and again have clouds of human bees, with the 
sting of their swords and the honey of their new energy, issued 
from this ancient hive. The. swarms receive different names in 
history : Hun, Turk, Tartar, Mongol, Manchiu, but they all emerge 
from the same source, giving or receiving dynastic names, but 
being in reality Tungusic people of the same basic stock. 

A tribe inhabiting one of the ravines or rich river flats of the 
Sungari region increases in wealth and numbers. A powerful 
chief leads them to war and victory. Tribes and lands are an- 
nexed. Martial valor, wealth, and strength increase. Ambition 
and the pressure of numbers tempt to farther conquest. Over 
and beyond the Great WaU is the ever-glittering prize — teeming 
China. The march begins southward. After many a battle, and 
only, it may be, after a generation of war against the imperial le- 
gions beyond the frontiers, the goal is reached. The Middle 
Kingdom is conquered and a new dynasty sits on the Dragon 



61 COREA. 

Throne, until long peace enervates and luxury weakens. Then 
out of the old northern seats of population rolls a new flood of 
conquest, and a new swarm of conquerors is hived off. 

Thus we see the original land embracing the Amur and Sun- 
gari valleys has had its periods of power and decay, of historical 
and unhistorical life. Unity and movement make history, disin- 
tegration and apathy cause the page of history to be blank. But 
the land is still there with the people and the possibilities of the 
future. 

In spite of the associations of hoary antiquity that clustei 
around Asiatic countries, the reader of history does not expect to 
hear of single empires enduring through many centuries. With 
the exception of Japan, no nation of Asia can show a dynastic line 
extending through a millennium. The empires founded by Asia- 
tic conquerors are short-lived. The countries and the people 
remain, but the rulers constantly change, and the building up, 
flourishing, decay, and dissolution suggest the seasons rather than 
the centuries. No enduring political fabrics, like those of Rome 
or Britain, are known in Asia. Though China and India abide like 
the oak, their rulers change like the leaves. Socially, these coun- 
tries are the symbols of petrifaction, politically they are as the 
kaleidoscope. From this law of continuous political mutation, 
Corea has not been free. 

In one of these epochs of historical movement, at the opening 
of the eighth century, there arose the kingdom of Puhai, the capi- 
tal of which was the present city of Kirin. Its northern bounda- 
ries first touched the Sungari, and later the Amur, shifting to the 
Sungari again. Its southern border was at first the Tumen River, 
and later the modern province of Ham-kiung was included in it. 
Lines drawn southwardly through Lake Hanka on the east, and 
Mukden on the west, would enclose its longitude. Its Hfe lasted 
from about 700 to 925 a.d. This kingdom was continually on bad 
terms with China, and the Tang emperors for nearly a century at- 
tempted to crush it into vassalage. Puhai made brave resistance, 
being aided not only by the large numbers of Koraians, who had 
fled when beaten by the Chinese across the Tumen River, but also 
by the Japanese, whose supremacy they acknowledged by payment 
of tribute. With the latter their relations were always of a peace- 
ful and pleasant nature, and the correspondence and other docu- 
ments of the visiting embassies to the mikado's court are still pre- 
served in Japan. 



KORAI, OR UNITED COREA. C") 

Yet thougli Puhai was able to resist China and hold, part of 
the old territory of Korai, it fell before the persistent attacks of 
the Kitan tribes, whose empire, lasting from 907 to 1125 a.d., 
stretched from west of Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean. In the 
early part of the tenth century this Puhai kingdom, whose age 
was scarcely two centuries, melted away again into tribes and vil- 
lages, each with its chief. The country being without political 
unity returned to unhistorical obscurity, as part of the Kitan em- 
pire. Without crossing the Tumen, to enter China by way of 
Corea, the Kitans marched at once around the Ever- White Moun- 
tains and dovni the Liao Tung valley into China. 

The breaking up of Puhai was not without its influence on the 
Corean peninsula. As early as the ninth century thousands of 
refugees, driven before the Kitans or dissatisfied with nomad hfe 
on the plains, recrossed the Tumen and a great movement of emi- 
gration set into Northern Corea, which again became populous, 
cultivated, and rich. With increasing prosperity better govern- 
ment was desired. The worthlessness of the rulers and the pros- 
pect of a successful revolution tempted the ambition of a Buddh- 
ist monk named Kung-wo who, in 912 a.d., left his monastery 
and raised the flag of rebellion. He set forth to establish another 
pohtical fabric of mushroom duration, which was destined to 
make way for a more permanent kingdom, and, in the end, united 
Corea. 

With his followers, Kung-wo attacked the city of Kaichow (in 
the modern Kang-wen province), and was so far successful as to 
enter it and proclaim himself king. His personal success was 
of short duration. His lieutenant, Wang-ken, that is Wang the 
founder, was a descendant of the old kingly house of Korai. Dui'- 
ing all the time of Chinese occupancy, or Shinra supremacy, his 
family had kept alive their spirit, traditions, and claims. Think 
ing he could rule better than a priest, Wang put the ex-monk to 
death and proclaimed himself the true sovereign of Korai. All 
this went on without the interference of China, which at this time 
was torn by internal disorder and the ravages of the same Kitan 
tribes that had destroyed Puhai. Wang made Ping-an and Kai- 
chow the capitals of his kingdom, and resolved to take full advan- 
tage of his opportunity to conquer the entire peninsula and unite 
all its parts under his sceptre. 

Circumstances made this an easy task. With China passive, 
Shinra weak, through long absorption in luxury and the arts of 



GQ COREA. 

peace, and with most part of tlie population of tlie peninsula of 
Korain blood and descent, tlie work was easy. The whole country, 
from the Ever-White Mountains to Quelpart Island, was overrun 
and welded into unity. The name of Shinra was blotted out after 
a line of fifty-six kings and a life of nine hundred and ninety-three 
years. For the first time the peninsula became a pohtical unit, 
and the name Korai, springing to life again like the Arabian 
phoenix out of its ashes, became the symbol alike of united Corea 
and of the race which peopled it. Even yet the name Korai 
(Gauli or Gori in the vernacular) is generally used by the people. 

The probabilities are that the people of the old Fuyu race, 
descendants of the tribes of Kokorai, as the more vigorous stock, 
had already so far supplanted the old aboriginal people inhabiting 
Southern Corea as to make conquest by Wang, who was one of 
their own blood, easy. This is shown in a series of maps repre- 
senting the three kingdoms of Corea from 201 to 655 a.d., by the 
Japanese scholar Otsuki Toyo. At the former date the Kokorai 
people beyond that part of their domain conquered by China have 
occupied the land as far south as the Han Biver, or to the 37th 
parallel. Later, Shinra, in 593, and again in 655, backed by Chi- 
nese armies, had regained her territory a degree or two northward, 
and in the eighth and ninth centuries, acting as the ally of China, 
ruled all the country to the Tumen Eiver. Yet, though Shinra 
held the land, the inhabitants were the same, namely, the stock of 
Korai, ready to rise against their rulers and to annihilate Shinra 
in a name and monarchy that had in it nationality and the pres- 
tige of their ancient freedom and greatness. 

Thoroughly intent on unifying his realm, Wang chose a central 
location for the national capital. Kion-chiu, the metropolis of 
Shinra, was too far south, Ping-an, the royal seat of old Korai, 
was too far north ; but one hundred miles nearer "the river " Han, 
Avas Sunto. This city, now called Kai-seng, is twenty-five miles 
from Seoul and equally near the sea. Wang made Sunto what it 
has been for over nine centuries, a fortified city of the first rank, 
the chief commercial centre of the country, and a seat of learning. 
It remained the capital until 1392 a.d. Wang-ken or Wang, the 
founder of the new dynasty under which the people were to be 
governed for over four hundred years, was an ardent Buddhist. 
Spite of his having put the monk to death to further personal 
ends, he became the defender of the India faith and made it the 
official religion. Monasteries were founded and temples built in 



KORAI, OR UNITED COREA. 67 

great numbers. To furnish revenues for the support of these, 
tracts of land were set apart as permanent endowment. The four 
centuries of the house of Korai are the palmy days of Corean 
Buddhism. 

From China, which at this time was enjoying that era of liter=- 
ary splendor, for which the Sung dynasty was noted, there came 
an impulse both to scholastic activity and to something approach- 
ing popular education. 

The Nido, or native syllabary, which had been invented by 
Chul-chong, the statesman of Shinra, now came into general use. 
While Chinese literature and the sacred books of Buddhism were 
studied in the original Sanscrit, popular works were composed in 
Corean and written out in the Nido, or vernacular syllables. The 
printing press, invented by the Sung scholars, was introduced and 
books were printed from cut blocks. The Japanese are known to 
have adopted printing from Corea as early as the twelfth century, 
when a work of the Buddhist canon was printed from wooden 
blocks. "A Corean book is known which dates authentically from 
the period 1317-1324, over a century before the earliest printed 
book known in Europe." The use of metal type, made by mould- 
ing and casting, is not distinctly mentioned in Corea until the year 
1420, and the invention and use of the Unmun, a true native al- 
phabet, seems to belong to the same period. The eleven vowels 
and fourteen consonants serve both as an alphabet and a syllabary, 
the latter being the most ancient system, and the former an im- 
provement on it. 

The unifier of Corea died in 945 and was succeeded by his son 
Wu. Fifteen years later the last of the five weak dynasties that 
had rapidly succeeded each other in China, fell. The Chinese 
emperor proposing, and the Corean king being willing, the latter 
hastened to send tribute, and formed an alliance of friendship 
with the imperial Sung, who swayed the destinies of China for 
the next 166 years (960-1101). 

Korai soon came into collision with the Kitans in the following 
manner. The royal line of united Corea traced their descent di- 
rectly from the ancient kings of Kokorai, and therefore claimed 
relationship with the princes of Puhai. On the strength of this 
claim, the Koraian king asserted his right to the whole of Liao 
Tung, which had been formerly held by Puhai. The Kitans, hav- 
ing matters of greater importance to attend to at the time, allowed 
its temporary occupation by Korai troops. Nevertheless the king 



68 COREA. 

thought it best to send homage to the Kitan emperor, in order tc 
get a clear title to the territory. In 1012 he despatched an em- 
bassy acknowledging the Kitan supremacy. This verbal message 
did not satisfy the strong conqueror, who demanded that the 
Koraian king should come in person and make obeisance. The 
latter refused. A feud at. once broke out between them, which led 
to a war, in which Korai was worsted and stripped of all her terri- 
tory west of the Yalu River. 

Palladius has pointed out the interesting fact that a little vil- 
lage about twenty miles north of Tie-ling, and seventy miles north 
of Mukden, called Gauli-chan (Korai village) still witnesses by its 
name to its former history, and to the possession by Corea of ter- 
ritory west of the Yalu. 

The Kitans, not satisfied with recovering Liao Tung, crossed 
the river and invaded Korai, in 1015. By this time a new nation, 
under the name of Nlijun or Ninchi, had formed around Lake 
Hanka, in part of the territory of extinct Puhai. With their new 
frontagers the Koraians made an alliance "as solid as iron and 
stone," and with their aid drove back the Kitan invaders. 

Henceforth the boundaries of Corea remained stationary, and 
have never extended beyond the limits with which the western 
world is famihar. 

An era of peace and prosperity set in, and a thriving trade 
sprang up between the Niijun and Korai. The two nations, ce- 
mented in friendship through a common fear of the Kitans, grew 
apace in numbers and prosperity. 

The Kitans were known to Chinese authors as early as the fifth 
century, seven nomad tribes being at that time confederate under 
their banners. At the beginning of the tenth century, these wan- 
derers had been transformed into hordes of disciplined cavalry. 
Their wealth and intelligence having increased by conquest, they 
formed a great empire in 925, which extended from the Altai 
Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and from within the Great "Wall 
to the Yablonoi Mountains, having Peking for one of its capitals. 
It flourished until the twelfth century (a.d. 1125), when it gave 
way to the Kin empire, which held Mongolia and still more terri- 
tory than the Kitans possessed within what is now China proper. 

This Kin empire was founded by the expansion of the Niijun, 
who, from their seats north of the Tumen and east of the Sungari, 
had gradually widened, and by conquest absorbed the Kitans. 
Aguta, the founder of the new empire, gave it the name of the 



KORAI, OR UNITED CORBA. 69 

Golden Dominion. During its existence Corea was not troubled 
by her great neighbor, and for two hundred years enjoyed peace 
within her borders. Her commerce now flourished at all points 
of the compass, both on land, with her northern and western 
neighbors, with the Japanese on the east, and the Chinese south 
and west. Much direct intercourse in ships, guided by the mag- 
netic needle, "the chariot of the south," took place between 
Ningpo and Sunto. Mr. Edkins states that the oldest recorded 
instance of the use of the mariner's compass is that in the Chinese 
historian's account of the voyage of the imperial ambassador to 
Corea, from Nanking by way of Ningpo, in a fleet of eight vessels, 
in the year 1122. 

The Arabs, who about this time were also trading with the 
Coreans, and had lived in their country, soon afterward introduced 
this silent friend of the mariner into their ov^ra country in the 
west, whence it found its way into Europe and to the hands of 
Columbus. To the eye of the Corean its mysterious finger pointed 
to the south. To the western man it pointed to the lode-star. 

The huge wide-open eyes which the sailors of Chinese Asia 
paint at the prow of their ship, to discover a path in the sea, 
became more than ever an empty fancy before this unerring path- 
finder. As useless as the ever-open orbs on a mummy lid, these 
lidless eyes were relegated to the domain of poetry, while the 
swinging needle opened new paths of science and discovery. 




Coin of Korai. " Ko-ka " (Name of Year-Period). "Current Money." 



CHAPTER X. 

CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS. 

Apter a long breathing-spell — as one, in reading history, might 
call it — the old hive in the north was again ready to swarm. It was 
to be seen once more how useless was the Great Wall of China in 
keeping back the many-named invaders, known in history by the 
collective term Tatars. A new people began descending from 
their homeland, which lay near the northern and eastern shores of 
Lake Baikal. This inland sea — scarcely known in the school 
geographies, or printed in the average atlas in such proportionate 
dimensions as to suggest a pond — is one of the largest lakes in 
the world, being 370 miles long and covering 13,300 square miles 
of surface. Its shores are now inhabited by Russian colonists and 
its waters are navigated by whole fleets of ships and steamers. It 
lies 1,280 feet above the sea. 

Beginning their migTations from this point, in numbers and 
bulk that suggest only the snowball, the Mongol horsemen moved 
with resistless increase and momentum, consolidating into their 
mass tribe after tribe, until their horde seemed an avalanche of 
humanity that threatened to crush all civilization and engulph the 
Avhole earth. These mounted highlanders from the north were 
creatures who seemed to be horse and man in one being, and to 
actualize the old fable of the Centaurs. With a tiger-skin for a 
saddle, a thong loop with only the rider's great toe thrust in it for 
a stirrup, a string in the horse's lower jaw for a bridle, armed 
with spear and cimeter, these conquerors who despised walls went 
forth to level cities and slaughter all who resisted. In their raids 
they found food ever ready in the beasts they rode, for a reeking 
haunch of horse-meat, cut from the steed whose saddle had been 
emptied by arrow or accident, was usually found slung to their 
pommels. A slice of this, raw or warmed, served to sustain life 
for these hard riders, who lived all day in the saddle and at night 
slept with it wrapped around them. 

For a century the power of these nomads was steadily grow- 



CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS. 71 

ing, before they emerged clearly into history and loomed np before 
the frontiers of the empire. The master mind and hand that 
moulded them into unity was Genghis Khan (1160-1227 a.d.). 

Who was Genghis Khan ? A Japanese writer, who is also a 
traveller in Corea and China, has written in English a thesis which 
shows, with strong probability, at least, that this unifier of Asia was 
Gen-Ghike, or Yoshitsune. This Japanese hero, born in 1159, was 
the field-marshal of the army of the Minamoto who annihilated the 
Taira family.^ In 1189, having fled from his jealous brother, Yori- 
tomo, he reached Yezo and thence crossed, it is believed, to Man- 
churia. His was probably the greatest military mind which Japan 
ever produced. 

That Yoshitsune and Genghis Khan were one person is argued 
by Mr. Suyematz,^ who brings a surprising array of coincidences to 
prove his thesis. These are in names, titles, ages, dates, personal 
characteristics, flags and banners, myths and traditions, nomen- 
clature of families, localities and individuals, and Japanese relics, 
coins, arms, and fortresses in Manchuria. Without reaching the 
point of demonstration, it seems highly probable that this wonder- 
ful personality, this marvellous intellect, was of Japanese origin. 

Whoever this restless spirit was, it is certain that he gathered 
tribes once living in freedom like the wild waves into the unity of 
the restless sea. Out from the grassy plains of Manchuria rolled 
a tidal- wave of conquest that swept over Asia, and flung its last 
drops of spray alike over Japan, India, and Russia. Among the na- 
tions completely overrun and overwhelmed by the Mongol hordes 
was Corea. 

In 1206, Yezokai — the word in Japanese means Yezo Sea — the 
leader of the Mongols, at the request of his chieftains, took the name 
of Genghis Khan and proclaimed, himself the ruler of an empire. 
He now set before himself the task of subduing the Kitans and ab- 
sorbing their land and people, preparatory to the conquest of 
China. This was accomplished in less than six years. Liao Tung 
was invaded and, in 1213, his armies were inside the Great Wall. 
Three mighty hosts were now organized, one to overrun aU China 
to Nepal and Anam, one to conquer Corea and Japan, and one to 
bear the white banners of the Mongols across Asia into Europe. 
This work, though not done in a day, was nearly completed before 

' The Mikado's Empire, Chapters XIII. and XIV. 

^ The Identity of the Great Conqueror, Genghis Khan, with the Japanese 
Hero Yoshitsune, by K. Suyematz of Japan. London, 1879. 



72 COREA. 

a generation passed.^ Genghis Khan led the host that moved to 
the west. In 1218 the Corean king declared himself a vassal of 
Genghis. In 1231 the murder of a Mongol envoy in Corea was 
the cause of the first act of war. The Mongols invaded the coun- 
try, captured forty of the principal towns, received the humiliation 
of the king, who had fled to Kang-wa Island, and began the aboli- 
tion of Corean independence by appointing seventy-two Mongol 
prefects to administer the details of local government. The people, 
exasperated by the new and strange methods of their foreign con- 
querors, rose against them and murdered them all. This was the 
signal for a second and more terrible invasion. A great Mongol 
army overran the country in 1241, fought a number of pitched 
battles, defeated the king, and again imposed heavy tribute on 
their humbled vassal. In 1256 the Corean king went in person to 
do homage at the court of the conqueror of continents. 

In the details of the Mongol rule kindness and cruelty were 
blended. The most relentless military measures were taken to 
secure obedience after the conciliatory policy failed. By using 
both methods the great Khan kept his hold on the little peninsula, 
although the Coreans manifested a constant disposition to revolt. 

About this time began a brilliant half century of intercourse 
between Europe and Cathay, which has been studied and illustra- 
ted in the vnritings of Colonel H. Yule. The two Franciscan monks 
Carpinini and Bubruquis visited China, and the camps of the great 
Khan, between the years 1245 and 1253. By their graphic narra- 
tives, in which the wars of Genghis were described, they made the 
name of Cathay (from Kitai, or Kitan) familiar in Europe. Matteo, 
Nicolo, and Marco Polo, who came later, as representatives of the 
commerce which afterward flourished between Venice and Genoa, 
and Ningpo and Amoy, were but a few among many merchants 
and travellers. Embassies from the Popes and the Khan ex- 
changed courtesies at Avignon and Cambaluc (Peking). Christian 
churches were established in Peking and other cities by the Fran- 
ciscan monks. The various Europeans who have saved their own 
names and a few others from oblivion, and have left us a roman- 
tic, but in the main a truthful, picture of mediaeval China and the 
Mongols, were probably only the scribes among a host who traded 
or travelled, but never told their story. Among the marvels of the 
empire of the Mongols, in which one might walk safely from Corea 
to Bussia, was religious toleration. When, however, the Mongols 

' See Howorth's History of the Mongols, London, 1876. 



CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS. 73 

of central Asia embraced the creed of Islam, bigotry closed tbe 
highway into Europe, and communications ceased. Cathay, Zi- 
pangu, and Corea again siink from the eyes of Europe into the 
night of historic darkness. 

Khublai Khan having succeeded his grandfather, Genghis, and 
being now ruler of all the Asiatic mainland, resolved, in 1266, to 
conquer Japan. He wrote a letter to the mikado, but the envoys 
were so frightened by the Corean's exaggerated account of the 
difficulties of reaching the empire in the sea, that they never sailed. 
Other embassies were despatched in 1271 and 1273, and Kiublai 
began to prepare a mighty flotilla and army of invasion. One 
hundred of the ships were built on Quelpart Island. His armada, 
consisting of 300 vessels and 15,000 men, Chinese, Mongols, and 
Coreans, sailed to Japan and was met by the Japanese off the isl- 
and of Iki. Owing to their valor, but more to the tempest that 
arose, the expedition was a total loss, only a few of the original 
number reaching Corea alive. 

Evidently desirous of conquering Japan by diplomacy, the 
great Khan despatched an embassy which reached, not the mi- 
kado's, but only the sho-giin's court in 1275. His ambassadors 
were accompanied by a large retinue from his Corean vassals. 
The Japanese allowed only three of the imposing number to go 
to Kamakura, twelve miles from the modern Tokio, and paid no 
attention to the Khan's threatening letters. So irritated were the 
brave islanders that when another ambassador from the Khan ar- 
rived, in the following year, he disembarked as a prisoner and was 
escorted, bound, to Kamakura, where he was thrown into prison, 
kept during four years, and taken out only to be beheaded. 

Upon hearing this, Khublai began the preparation of the mighti- 
est of his invading hosts. To be braved by a little island nation, 
when his sceptre ruled from the Dnieper to the Yellow Sea, was 
not to be thought of. Various fleets and contingents sailed from 
different ports in China and made rendezvous on the Corean coast. 
The fleet was composed of 3,500 war junks, of large size, having on 
board 180,000 Chinese, Mongols, and Coreans. Among their en- 
gines of war were the catapults which the Polos had taught them 
to make. They set sail in the autumn of 1281. 

From the very first the enterprise miscarried. The general-in- 
chief fell sick and the command devolved on a subordinate, who 
had no plan of operation. The various divisions of the force be- 
came separated. It is probable that the majority of them never 



74 COREA. 

reached the mainland of Japan. The Mongol and Corean contin- 
gent reached the province of Chikuzen, hut were not allowed to 
make a successful landing, for the Japanese drove them back with 
sword and fire. The Chinese division, arriving later, was met by 
a terrible tempest that nearly annihilated them and destroyed the 
ships already engaged. The broken remnant of the fleet and 
armies, taking refuge on the island of Iki, were attacked by the 
Japanese and nearly all slain, imprisoned, or beheaded in cold 
blood. Only a few reached Corea to tell the tale. 

The ''Mongol civilization," so-called, seems to have had little 
influence on Corea. The mighty empire of Genghis soon broke 
into many fragments. The vast fabric of his government melted 
ike a sand house before an incoming wave, and that wave receding 
left scarcely a sediment recognizable on the polity or social life of 
Corea. Marco Polo in his book hardly mentions the country, though 
describing Zipangu or Japan quite fully. One evil effect of their 
forced assistance given to the Mongols, was that the hatred of the 
Japanese and Coreans for each other was mutually intensified 
After the Mongolian invasion begins that series of piratical raid, 
on their coast and robbery of their vessels at sea, by Japanese 
adventurers, that made navigation beyond sight of land and ship- 
building among the Coreans almost a lost art. 

The centuries following the Mongol invasion were periods of 
anarchy and civil war in Japan, and the central government au- 
thority being weak the pirates could not be controlled. Building 
or stealing ships, bands of Japanese sailors or ex-soldiers put to 
sea, capturing Corean boats, junks, and surf-rafts. Landing, they 
harried the shores and robbed and murdered the defenceless peo- 
ple. Growing bolder, the marauders sailed into the Yellow Sea 
and landed even in China and in Liao Tung. They kept whole 
towns and cities in terror, and a chain of coast forts had to be 
built in Shan-tung to defend that province. 

The fire-signals which, in the old days of "the Three King- 
doms," had flashed upon the headlands to warn of danger seaward, 
Were now made a national service. The system was perfected so 
as to converge at the capital, Sunto, and give notice of danger 
from any point on the coast. By this means better protection 
against the sea-rovers was secured. 

All this evil experience with the piratical Japanese of the mid- 
dle ages has left its impress on the language of the Coreans. 
From this period, perhaps even long before it, date those words 



CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS. 



75 



of sinister omen of whicli we give but one or two examples which 
have the prefix wai (Japan) in them. A wai-kol, a huge, fierce man, 
of gigantic aspect, with a bad head, though perhaps with good 
heart, a kind of ogre, is a Japanese kol or creature. A destructive 
wind or typhoon is a Japanese wind. As western Christendom for 
centuries uttered their fears of the Norse pirates, " From the fury 
of the Northmen, Good Lord, deliver us," so the Korai people, 




Two-Masted Corean Vessel (from a Photograph taken in 1871). 



along the coast, for many generations offered up constant petition 
to their gods for protection against these Northmen of the Pacific. 
This chronic danger from Japanese pirates, which Korai and 
Cho-sen endured for a period nearly as extended as that of Eng- 
land from the Northmen, is one of the causes that have contribu- 
ted to make the natives dread the sea as a path for enemies, and 
in Corea we see the strange anomaly of a people more than semi- 
civilized whose wretched boats scarcely go beyond tide-water. 



CHAPTER XI. 

NEW CHO-SEN. 

It win be remembered that tbe first Chinese settler and civ- 
iHzer of Corea, Ki Tsze, gave it the name of Cho-sen. Coming 
from violence and war, to a land of peace which lay eastward of 
his old home, Ki Tsze selected for his new dwelling-place a name 
at once expressive of its outward position and his own inward emo- 
tions — Cho-sen, or Morning Calm. 

For eleven centuries a part of Manchuria, including, as the 
Coreans believe, the northern half of the peninsula, bore this 
name. From the Christian era until the tenth century, the names 
of the three kingdoms, Shinra, Hiaksai, and Kokorai, or Korai, 
express the divided political condition of the country. On the fall 
of these petty states, the united peninsula was called Korai. Korai 
existed from a.d. 934 until a.d. 1392, when the ancient name of 
Cho-sen was restored. Though the Coreans often speak of their 
country as Korai (Gauli, or Gori), it is as the English speak of 
Britain — with a patriotic feeling rather than for accuracy. Cho- 
sen is still the official and popular designation of the country. 
This name is at once the oldest and the newest. 

The first bestowal of this name on the peninsula was in poetic 
mood, and was the symbol of a peaceful triumph. The second 
gift of the name was the index of a political revolution not un- 
accompanied with bloodshed. The latter days of the dynasty 
founded by Wang were marked by licentiousness and effeminacy 
in the palace, and misrule in the country. The people hated the 
cruelties of their monarch, the thirty-second of his line, and longed 
for a deliverer. Such a one was Ni Taijo (Japanese, Ri Seiki), who 
was born in the region of Broughton's Bay, in the Ham-kiung 
province. It is said of him that from his youth he surpassed all 
others in virtue, intelligence, and skill in manly exercises. He 
was especially fond of hunting with the falcon. 

One day, while in the woods, his favorite bird, in pursuing its 



NEW CHO-SEN. 77 

quarry, flew so far ahead that it was lost to the sight of its master. 
Hastening after it the young man espied a shrine at the roadside 
into which he saw his hawk fly. Entering, he found within a her- 
mit priest. Awed and abashed at the weird presence of the white- 
bearded sage, the lad for a moment was speechless ; but the old 
man, addressing him, said : " What benefit is it for a youth of your 
abilities to be seeking a stray falcon ? A throne is a richer prize. 
Betake yourself at once to the capital." 

Acting upon the hint thus given him, and leaving the falcon 
behind, Taijo wended his way westward to Sunto, and entered the 
military service of the king. He soon made his mark and rapidly 
rose to high command, until he became lieutenant-general of the 
whole army. He married and reared children, and through the 
espousal of his daughter by the king, became father-in-law to his 
sovereign. 

The influence of Taijo was now immense. While with his 
soldierly abilities he won the enthusiastic regard of the army, his 
popularity with the people rested solely on his virtues. Possessed 
of such influence with the court, the soldiers, and the country at 
large, he endeavored to reform the abuse of power and to curb the 
cruelties of the king. Even to give advice to a despot is an act of 
bravery, but Taijo dared to do it again and again. The king, how- 
ever, refused to follow the counsel of his father-in-law or to reform 
abuses. He thus daily increased the odium in which he was held 
by his subjects. 

Such was the state of affairs toward the end of the fourteenth 
century, when everything was ripe for revolution. 

In China, great events, destined to influence " the little king- 
dom," were taking place. The Mongol dynasty, even after the 
breaking up of the empire founded by Genghis Khan, still held 
the dragon throne ; but during the later years of their reign, when 
harassed by enemies at home, Corea was neglected and her tribute 
remained unpaid. A spasmodic attempt to resubdue the lapsed 
vassal, and make Corea a Mongol castle of refuge from impending 
doom, was ruined by the energy and valor of Ni Taijo. The 
would-be invaders were driven back. The last Mongol emperor 
fell in 1341, and the native Ming, or " Bright," dynasty came into 
power, and in 1368 was firmly established. 

Their envoys being sent to Corea demanded pledges of vassal- 
age. The king neglected, finally refused, and ordered fresh levies 
to be made to resist the impending invasion of the Chinese. In 



78 COREA. 

this time of gloom and bitterness against tlieii' own monarch, the 
army contained but a pitifully small number of men who could be 
depended on to fight the overwhelming host of the Ming veterana 
Taijo, in an address to his followers, thus spoke to them : 

" Although the order from the king must be obeyed, yet the 
attack upon the Ming soldiers, with so small an army as ours, is 
like casting an egg against a rock, and no one of the army will 
return alive. I do not tell you this from any fear of death, but 
our king is too haughty. He does not heed our advice. He has 
ordered out the army suddenly without cause, paying no attention 
to the suffering which wives and children of the soldiers must 
undergo. This is a thing I cannot bear. Let us go back to the 
capital and the responsibility shall fall on my shoulders alone." 

Thereupon the captains and soldiers being impressed with the 
purity of their leader's motives, and admiring his courage, resolved 
to obey his orders and not the king's. Airiving at Sunto, he 
promptly took measures to depose the king, Avho was sent to 
Kang-wa, the island so famous in modern as in ancient and mediae- 
val history. 

The king's wrath was very great, and he intrigued to avenge 
himself. His plot was made known, by one of his retainers, to 
Taijo, who, by a counter-movement, put forth the last radical 
measure which, in Chinese Asia means, for a private person, disin- 
heritance ; for a king, deposition ; and for a royal line, extinction. 
This act was the removal of the tablets of the king's ancestors from 
their shrine, and the issue of an order forbidding further continu- 
ance of sacrifice to them. This Corean and Chinese method of 
clapping the extinguisher upon a whole dynasty was no sooner or- 
dered than duly executed. 

Ni Taijo was now made king, to the great delight of the peo- 
ple. He sent an embassy to Nanking to notify the Ming emperor 
of affairs in the " outpost state," to tender his loyal vassalage, to 
seek the imperial approval of his acts, and to beg his investiture 
as sovereign. This was graciously granted. The ancient name of 
Cho-sen was revived, and at the petitioner's request conferred upon 
the country by the emperor, who profited by this occasion to en- 
force upon the Coreans his calendar and chronology — the recep- 
tion of these being in itself alone tantamount to a sufficient de- 
claration of fealty. Friendship being now fully established with 
the Mings, the king of Cho-sen sent a number of youths, sons of 
his nobles, to Nanking to study in the imperial Chinese college. 



NEW CHOSEN. 



79 



The dynasty thus estabHshed is still the reigning family in 
Corea, though the direct Hne came to an end in 1864 The Co 
reans m their treaty with Japan, in 1876, dated the document ac- 
cordmg to the 484th year of Cho-sen, reckoning from the acces^ 
sion of Ni Taijo to the throne. One of the first acts of the new 
dynasty was to make a change in the location of the national 
capital. The new dynasty made choice of the city of Han Yang 




The Walls of Seoul (from a Photograph, 1876) 



situated on the Han Eiver, about fifty miles from its moutk The 
kmg enlarged the fortifications, enclosed the city with a wall of 
masonry of great extent, extending over the adjacent hills and 
valieys. On this wall was a rampart pierced with port-holes for 
archers and over the streams were built arches of stone. He or- 
ganized the administrative system which, with slight modification, 
IS still m force at the present time. The city being well situated, 
soon grew in extent, and hence became the Seoul or capital (pro- 



80 COREA. 

nounced by the Chinese king, as in Nanking and Peking, and the 
Japanese Ho, as in Kioto and Tokio). He also re-divided the 
kingdom into eight do or provinces. This division still maintains. 
The names, formed each of two Chinese characters joined to that 
of do (circuit or province), and approximate meanings are given 
below. ^ With such names of bright omen, " the eight provinces " 
entered upon an era of peace and flourishing prosperity. The 
people found out that something more than a change of masters 
was meant by the removal of the capital to a more central situa- 
tion. Vigorous reforms were carried out, and changes were made, 
not only in political administration, but in social life, and even in 
religion. In all these the influence of the China of the Ming em- 
perors is most manifest. 

Buddhism, which had penetrated into every part of the country, 
and had become, in a measure, at least, the religion of the state, 
was now set aside and disestablished. The Confucian ethics and 
the doctrines of the Chinese sages were not only more diligently 
studied and propagated under royal patronage, but were incor- 
porated into the religion of the state. From the early part of the 
fifteenth century, Confucianism flourished until it reached the point 
of bigotry and intolerance ; so that when Christianity was discov- 
ered by the magistrates to be existing among the people, it was 
put under the band of extirpation, and its followers thought 
worthy of death. 

^ Beginning at the most northern and eastern, and following the sea line 
south around up to the northeast, thej are : 

CoREAN. Japanese. English. 

1. Ham-kiung, or Kan-kio do. Perfect Mirror, or Complete View Province. 

2. Kang-wen, or Ko-gen do. Bay Meadow Province. 

3. Kiung-sang, or Kei-sh5 do. Respectful Congratulation Province. 

4. Julia, or Zen-ra d5. Completed Network Province. 

5. Chung-chong, or Chiu-sei do. Serene Lojalty Province. 

6. Kiung-kei, or Kei-ki d5. The Capital Circuit, or Home Province. 

7. Whang-hai, or Ko-kai do. Yellow Sea Province. 

8. Ping-an, or Hei-an do Peace and Quiet Province. 

In this table we have given the names in English which approximate the 
sounds of the Chinese characters, with which names of the provinces are writ- 
ten, and as they are heard to-day in Cho-sen. The modern Coreans use the 
modern Chinese sounds of the characters, while the Japanese cling to the an- 
cient Chinese pronunciation of the same characters as they received them 
through Hiaksai and Shinra, eleven or twelve centuries ago. The old pure 
Corean sounds were Teru-ra tai for Zen-ra d5, Tsiku-shaku tai for Chiu-sei do, 
Keku-shaku tai for Kei-ki do, etc. 



NEW CHO-SEK 



81 









■1*-^ 



V7 / r^ V"'■/4s.it*'^«."7!73? 




\,\\ ,, 

^V W'^. 

Atv^Ml 



Magistrate >"\d Servant. 



82 COREA. 

Whatever may have been the motive for supplanting Buddh. 
ism, whether from sincere conviction of the paramount truth of 
the ancient ethics, or a desire to closely imitate the Middle King- 
dom in everything, even in religion, or to obtain easy and great 
wealth by confiscating the monastery and temple lands, it is certain 
that the change was sweeping, radical, and thorough. AH observ- 
ers testify that the cult of Shaka in Corea is almost a shadow. On 
the other hand, in many cities throughout the land, are buildings 
and halls erected and maintained by the government^ in which sit 
in honor the statues of Confucius and his greatest disciples. 

One great measure that tended to strengthen and make popu- 
lar the new religious establishment, to weaken the old faith, to 
give strength and unity to the new government, to foster educa- 
tion and make the Corean literary classes what they are to-day — 
critical scholars in Chinese — was what Americans would call " civil 
service reform." Appointment to office on the basis of merit, as 
shown in the literary examinations, was made the rule. Modelled 
closely upon the Chinese system, three grades of examinations 
were appointed, and three degrees settled. All candidates for 
miUtary or civil rank and office must possess diplomas, granted 
by the royal or provincial examiners, before appointment could be 
made or salary begun. The system, which is still in vogue, is 
more fully described in the chapter on education. 

Among the changes in the fashion of social life, introduced 
under the Ni dynasty, was the adoption of the Ming costume. To 
the Chinese of to-day the Corean dress and coiffure, as seen in 
Peking, are subjects for curiosity and merriment. The lack of a 
long queue, and the very different cut, form, and general appear- 
ance of these eastern strangers, strike the eye of mandarin and 
street laborer alike, very much as a gentleman in knee-breeches, 
cocked hat, and peruke, or the peasant costumes at Castle Garden, 
appear to a New Yorker, stepping from the elevated railway, on 
Broadway. 

Yet from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, the Chinese 
gentleman dressed like the Corean of to-day, and the mandarin of 
Canton or Nanking was as innocent of the Tartar hair-tail as is the 
citizen of Seoul. The Coreans simply adhere to the fashions pre- 
valent during the Ming era. The Chinese, in the matter of garb, 
however loath foreigners may be to credit it, are more progressive 
than their Corean neighbors. 

To the house of Ni belongs also the greater honor of abolish- 



NEW CHO-SEN. 83 

ing at least two cruel customs wliicli had their roots in supersti- 
tion. Heretofore the same rites which were so long in vogue in 
Japan, traces of which were noticed even down to the seventeenth 
century, held unchallenged sway in Corea. Ko-rai-chang, though 
not fuUy known in its details, was the habit of burying old men 
ahve. In-chei was the offering up of human sacrifices, presumably 
to the gods of the mountains and the sea. Both of these classes 
of rites, at once superstitious and horrible, were anciently very fre- 
quent ; nor was Buddhism able to utterly abolish them. In the 
latter case, they choked the victims to death, and then threw them 
into the sea. The island of Chansan was especially noted as the 
place of propitiation to the gods of the sea. 

The first successors of the founder of the house of Ni held 
great power, which they used for the good of the people, and 
hence enjoyed great popularity. The first after Taijo reigned two 
years, from 1398 to 1400. Hetai-jong, who came after him, ruled 
eighteen years, and among other benefits conferred, established 
the Sin-mun-ko, or box for the reception of petitions addressed 
directly to the king. Into this coffer, complaints and prayers from 
the people could lawfully and easily be dropped. Though still 
kept before the gate of the royal palace in Seoul, it is stated that 
access to it is now difficult. It seems to exist more in name than 
in fact. Among the first diplomatic acts of King Hetai-jong was 
to unite with the Chinese emperor, in a complaint to the mikado 
of Japan, against the buccaneers, whom the authorities of the 
latter country were unable to control. Hence the remonstrance 
was only partially successful, and the evil, which was aggravated 
by Corean renegades acting as pilots, grew beyond all bounds. 
These rascals made a lucrative living by betraying their own coun- 
trymen. 

Siei-jong, who succeeded to the throne on the death of his 
father, Hetai-jong, enjoyed a long reign of thirty- two years, during 
which the fortifications of the capital were added to and strength- 
ened. The Manchius beyond the Ever-white Mountains were 
then beginning to rise in power, and Liao Tung was disturbed 
by the raids of tribes from Mongolia, which the Ming generals 
were unable to suppress. When the fighting took place within 
fifty miles of her own boundary river, Cho-sen became alarmed, 
and looked to the defence of her own frontier and capital. In 
1450, on the death of the king, who " in time of peace prepared 
for war," Mun-jong, his son, succeeded to royal power. As usual 



84 CORBA. 

on the accession of a new sovereign, a Chinese ambassador was 
despatched from Peking, which had been the Ming capital since 
1614-, to Seoul, to confer the imperial patent of investiture. This 
dignitary, on his return, wrote a book recounting his travels, 
under the title of " Memorandum concerning the Affairs of Cho- 
sen." According to this writer, the military frontier of Corea at 
that time was at the Eastern Mountain Barrier, a few miles north- 
west of the present Border Gate. Palladius, the Russian writer, 
also states that, during the Ming dynasty, three grades of for- 
tresses were erected on the territory between the Great Wall and 
the Yalu River, " to guard against the attacks of the Coreans." 

It is more in accordance with the facts to suppose that the Chi- 
nese erected these fortifications to guard against invasion from the 
Manchius and other northern tribes that were ravaging Liao Tung, 
rather than against the Coreans. These defences did not avail to 
keep back the invasion which came a generation or two later, and 
" the Corean frontier," which the Chinese traveller, in 1450, found 
much further west than even the present " wall of stakes," shows 
that the neutral territory was then already established, and larger 
than it now is. Of this strip of rich forest and ginseng land, with 
many well-watered and arable valleys, once cultivated and popu- 
lous, but since the fifteenth century desolate, we shall hear again. 
In Chinese atlases the space is blank, with not one village marked 
where, until the removal by the Chinese government of the inhabi- 
tants westward, there was a population of 300,000 souls. The de- 
population of this large area of fertile soil was simply a Chinese 
measure of military necessity, which compelled her friendly aUy 
Cho-sen, for her own safety, to post sentinels as far west of her 
boundary river as the Eastern Mountain Barrier, described by the 
imperial envoy in 1450. 

The century which saw America discovered in the west, was 
that of Japan's greatest activity on the sea. On every coast within 
their reach, from Tartary to Tonquin, and from Luzon to Siam, 
these bold marauders were known and feared. The Chinese 
learned to bitterly regret the day when the magnetic needle, in- 
vented by themselves, got into the hands of these daring island- 
ers. The wounded eagle that felt the shaft, which had been feath- 
ered from his own plumes, was not more to be pitied than the 
Chinese people that saw the Japanese craft steering across the 
Yellow Sea to ravage and ruin their cities, guided by the compass 
bought in China. They not only harried the coasts, but went far 



NEW CHO-SEN. 



85 



up the rivers. In 1523, tKey landed even at Ningpo, and in the 
fight the chief mandarin of the city was killed. 

Yet, with the exception of incursions of these pirates, Cho-sen 
enjoyed the sweets of peace, and two centuries slipped away in 
Morning Calm. The foreign vessels from Europe which first, in 
1530, touched at the province of Bungo, in Southern Japan, may 
possibly have visited some part of the Corean shores. Between 




The Neutral Territory (from a Chinese Atlas). 

1540 and 1546 four arrivals of " black ships " from Portugal, are 
known to have called at points in Japan. It was from these the 
Japanese learned how to make the gunpowder and firearms which, 
before the close of the century, were to be used with such deadly 
effect in Corea. 

Now came back to Europe accounts of China and Japan — which 
were found to be the old Kathay, and Zipangu of Polo and the Fran- 



86 COREA. 

ciscans — and of " Coria," whicli Polo had barely mentioned. It was 
from the Portuguese, that Europe first learned of this middle land 
between the mighty domain of the Mings, and the empire in the 
sea. Stirred by the spirit of adventure and enterprise, and un- 
willing that the Iberian peninsulars should gain all the glory, an 
English " Society for the Discovery of Unknown Lands " was 
formed in 1555. A voyage was made as far as Novaia Zemha 
and Weigatz, but neither Corea nor Cathay was reached. Other 
attempts to find a northeast passage to India failed, and Asia re- 
mained uncircumnavigated until our own and Nordenskold's day. 
The other attempts to discover a northwest passage to China 
around the imaginary cape, in which North America was supposed 
to terminate, and through the equally fictitious straits of Anian, 
resulted in the discoveries of the Cabots, and of Hudson and Ero- 
bisher — of the American continent from the Hudson River to 
Greenland, but the way to China lay still around Africa. 

From Japan, the only possibility of danger during these two cen- 
turies was likely to come. In the north, west, and south, on the 
main land, hung the banners of the Ming emperors of China, and, 
as the tribute enforced was very light, the protection of her great 
neighbor was worth to Cho-sen far more than the presents she 
gave. From China there was nothing to fear. 

At first the new dynasty sent ships, embassies, and presents 
regularly to Japan, which were duly received, yet not at the mi- 
kado's palace in Kioto, but at the sho-gun's court at Kamakura, 
twelve miles from the site of the modern Japanese capital, Tokio. 
But as the Ashikaga family became effeminate in life, their power 
waned, and rival chiefs started up aU over the country. Clan 
fights and chronic intestine war became the rule in Japan. Only 
sraall areas of territory were governed from Kamakura, while 
the mikado became the tool and prey of rival daimios. One of 
these petty rulers held Tsushima, and traded at a settlement on 
the Corean coast called Fusan, by means of which some inter- 
course was kept up between the two countries. The Japanese 
government had always made use of Tsushima in its communica- 
tions with the Coreans, and the agency at Fusan was composed 
almost exclusively of retainers of the feudal lord of this island. The 
journey by land and sea from Seoul to Kamakura, often consumed 
two or three months, and with civil wars inland and piracy on the 
water, intercourse between the two countries became less and less. 
The last embassy from Seoul was sent in 1460, but after that, 



NEW CHO-SEN. 87 

owing to continued intestine war, the absence of the Coreans was 
not noticed by the Ashikagas, and as the Tsushima men purposely 
kept their customers ignorant of the weakness of their rulers at 
Kamakura and Kioto, lest the ancient vassals should cease to fear 
their old master, the Coreans remained in profound ignorance of 
the real state of aifairs in Japan. As they were never summoned, 
so they never came. Giving themselves no further anxiety con- 
cerning the matter, they rejoiced that such disagreeable duties 
were no longer incumbent upon them. It is even said in Corean 
histories that their government took the offensive, and under the 
reign of the king Chung-jong (1506-1544) captured Tsushima and 
several other Japanese islands, formerly tributary to Corea. What- 
ever fraction of truth there may be in this assertion, it is certain 
that Japan afterward took ample revenge on the score both of 
neglect and of reprisal. 

So, under the idea that peace was to last forever, and the morn- 
ing calm never to know an evening storm, the nation relaxed all 
vigilance. Expecting no danger from the east, the military re- 
sources were neglected, the army was disorganized, and the cas- 
tles were allowed to dilapidate into ruin. The moats filled and 
became shallow ditches, choked with vegetation, the walls and 
ramparts crumbled piecemeal, and the barracks stood roofless. 
As peace wore sweeter charms, and as war seemed less and less 
probable, so did all soldierly duties become more and more irk- 
some. The militia system was changed for the worse. The en- 
rolled men, instead of being called out for muster at assigned 
camps, and trained to field duty and the actual evolutions of war, 
were allowed to assemble at local meetings to perform only holi- 
day movements. The muster rolls were full of thousands of 
names, but off paper the army of Corea was a phantom. The 
people, dismissing all thought of possibility of war, gave them- 
selves no concern, leaving the matter to the army officials, who 
drew pay as though in actual war. They, in turn, devoted them- 
selves to dissipation, carousing, and sensual indulgence. It was 
while the country was in such a condition that the summons of 
Japan's greatest conqueror came to them and the Coreans learned, 
for the first time, of the fall of Ashikaga, and the temper of their 
new master. 



CHAPTER XII. 

EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 

China and Japan are to eacli other as England and the United 
States. The staid Chinaman looks at the lively Japanese with 
feelings similar to those of John Bull to his American " cousin." 
Though as radically different in blood, language, and tempera- 
ment as are the Germans and French, they are enough alike to 
find food for mutual jealousy. They discover ground for irritation 
in causes, which, between nations more distant from each other, 
would stir up no feeling whatever. China considers Japan a 
young, vain, and boasting stripling, whose attitude ought ever 
to be that of the pupil to the teacher, or the child to the father. 
Japan, on the contrary, considering China as an old fogy, far be- 
hind the age, decayed in constitution and fortune alike, and more 
than ready for the grave, resents all dictation or assumption of 
superiority. Even before their adoption of the forces of occiden- 
tal civilization in this nineteenth century, something of this 
haughty contempt for China influenced the Japanese mind. Japan 
ever refused to become vassal or tributary to China, and the mem- 
ory of one of her military usurpers, who accepted the honorary 
title of Nihon-0, or King of Japan, from the Chinese Emperor, is to 
this day loaded with increasing execration. It has ever been the 
practice of the Japanese court and people cheerfully to heap upon 
their mikado all the honors, titles, poetical and divine appellations 
which belong also to the Chinese emperor. 

To conquer or humble their mighty neighbor, to cross their 
slender swords of divine temper with the clumsy blades of the 
continental braves, has been the ambition of more than one Ja- 
panese captain. But Hideyoshi alone is the one hero in Japanese 
annals who actually made the attempt. 

As the Mongol conquerors issuing from China had used Corea 
as their point of departure to invade Japan, so Hideyoshi resolved 
to make the peninsula the road for his armies into China. After 



EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 89 

two centuries of anarchy in Japan, he followed up the work which 
Nobunaga had begun until the proudest daimio had felt the 
weight of his arm, and the empire was at peace. 

Yet, although receiving homage and congratulations from his 
feudal vassals, once proud princes, Hideyoshi was irritated that 
Cho-sen, which he, with all Japanese, held to be a tributary prov- 
ince, failed to send Hke greetings. Since, to the Ashikagas, she 
had despatched tribute and embassies, he was incensed that similar 
honors were not awarded to him, though, for over a century, all 
official relations between the two countries had ceased. 

On the 31st day of July, 1585, Hideyoshi was made Kuam- 
baku, or Begent, and to celebrate his elevation to this, the highest 
office to which a subject of the mikado's could aspire, he shortly 
afterward gave a great feast in Kioto, and proclaimed holiday 
throughout the empire. This feast was graced by the presence 
of his highest feudatories, lords, and captains, court nobles and 
palace ladies in their richest robes. Among others w^as one Yasu- 
hiro, a retainer of the lord of Tsushima. Hideyoshi's memory 
had been refreshed by his having had read to him, from the an- 
cient chronicles, the account of Jingu Kogo's conquests in the 
second century. He announced to his captains that, though Cho- 
sen was from ancient times tributary to Japan, yet of late years 
her envoys had failed to make visits or to send tribute. He then 
appointed Yasuhiro to proceed to Seoul, and remind the king and 
court of their duty. 

The Japanese envoy was a bluff old campaigner, very tall, and 
of commanding mien. His hair and beard had long since turned 
white under years and the hardships of war. His conduct was 
that of a man accustomed to command and to instant obedience, 
and to expect victory more by brute courage than by address. 
On his journey to Seoul he demanded the best rooms in the ho- 
tels, and annoyed even the people of rank and importance with 
haughty and strange questions. He even laughed at and made 
sarcastic remarks about the soldiers and their weapons. This 
conduct, so different from that of previous envoys, greatly sur- 
prised the Corean officials. Heretofore, when a Japanese officer 
came to Fusan, native troops escorted him from Fusan to Seoul, 
overawing him by their fierceness and insolence. Yasuhiro, accus- 
tomed to constant war under Hideyoshi's gourd-banner, rode 
calmly on his horse, and, amid the lines of lances drawn up as a 
guard of honor, spoke to his followers in a loud voice, telling them 



90 COREA. 

to watch the escort and note any incivility. In a certain village 
he joked with a Corean soldier about his spear, saying, with a pun, 
that it was too short and unfit for use. At this, all the Japanese 
laughed out loud. The Coreans could not understand the lan- 
guage, but hearing the laugh were angry and surprised at such 
boldness. At another town he insulted an aged official who was 
entertaining him, by remarking to his ov^n men that his hair and 
that of the Japanese grew gray by years, or by war and manly 
hardships ; " but what," cried he, " has turned this man's hair 
gray who has lived all his life amid music and dancing ? " This 
sarcastic fling, at premature and sensual old age, stung the official 
so that he became speechless with rage. At the capital, creden- 
tials were presented and a feast given, at which female musicians 
sang and wine flowed. During the banquet, when all were well 
drunk, the old hero pulled out a gourd full of pepper seeds and 
began to hand them around. The singing-girls and servants 
grabbed them, and a disgraceful scuffle began. This was what 
Yasuhiro wanted. Highly disgusted at their greedy behavior, he 
returned to his quarters and poured out a tirade of abuse about 
the manners of the people, which his Corean interpreter duly re- 
tailed to his superiors. Yasuhiro made up his mind that the 
country was in no way prepared for invasion ; the martial spirit 
of the people was very low, and the habits of dissipation and pro- 
fligacy among them had sapped the vigor of the men. 

To the offensive conduct of the envoy was added the irritation 
produced by the language of Hideyoshi's summons ; for in his let- 
ter he had used the imperial form of address, "we," the plural of 
majesty. Yasuhiro asked for a reply to these letters, that he might 
return speedily to Japan. There was none given him, and the Co- 
reans, pleading the flimsy excuse of the difficulty of the voyage, 
refused to send an embassy to Japan. 

Hideyoshi was very angry at the utter failure of Yasuhiro's 
mission. He argued that for an envoy to be content with such an 
answer was sure proof that he favored the Coreans. Some of 
Yasuhiro's ancestors, being daimios of Tsushima, had served as 
envoys to Cho-sen, and had enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative 
commerce, and even held office under the Corean government. 
Beflecting on these things, Hideyoshi commanded Yasuhiro and 
all his family to be put to death. 

He then despatched a second envoy, named Yoshitoshi, himself 
the daimio of Tsu Island, who took with him a favorite retainer, 



EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 91 

and a priest, named Gensho, as his secretary. They reached Seoui 
in safety, and, after the formal banquet, demanded the despatch 
of an envoy to Japan. The Corean dignitaries did not reply at 
once, but unofficially sent word, through the landlord of the hotel, 
that they would be glad to agree to the demand if the Japanese 
would send back the renegades who piloted the Japanese pirates 
in their raids upon the Corean coasts. Thereupon, Yoshitoshi 
despatched one of his suite to Japan. With amazing promptness 
he collected the outlaws, fourteen in number, and produced them 
in Seoul. These traitors, after confessing their crime, were led 
out by the executioners and their heads knocked off. Meanwhile, 
having tranquillized "all under Heaven" (Japan), even to Yezo and 
the Ainos, and finding nothing " within the four seas " worth cap- 
turing, Hideyoshi cast his eyes southward to the httle kingdom 
well named Eiu Kiu, or the Sleepy Dragon without horns. The 
people of these islands, called Loo Choo, on old maps, are true 
Japanese in origin, language, and dynasty. They speak a dialect 
kindred to that of Satsuma, and their first historical ruler was 
Sunten, a descendant of Tametomo, who fled from Japan in the 
twelfth century. Of the population of 120,000 people, one-tenth 
were of the official class, who lived from the public granaries. 
Saving all expense in war equipment, and warding off danger from 
the two great powers between which they lay, they had kept the 
good will of either by making their country act the part of the ass 
which crouches down between two burdens. They made presents 
to both, acknowledging Japan as their father, and China as their 
mother. From early times they had sent tribute-laden junks to 
Ningpo, and had introduced the Chinese classics, and social and 
political customs. When the Ming dynasty came into power, the 
Chinese monarch bestowed on the Prince of Eiu Kiu a silver seal, 
and a name for his country, which meant " hanging balls," a refer- 
ence to the fact that their island chain hung like a string of tas- 
sels on the skirt of China. Another of their ancient native 
names was Okinawa, or " long rope," which stretches as a cable 
between Japan and Formosa. Sugar and rice are the chief pro- 
ducts. Hideyoshi, wishing to possess this group of isles as an ally 
against China, and acting on the principle of baiting with a sprat 
in order to catch a mackerel, sent word to Eiu Kiu to pay tribute 
hereafter only to him. 

The young king, fearing the vn:*ath of the mighty lord of Nip- 
pon, sent a priest as his envoy, and a vessel laden with tribute 



92 COREA. 

offerings. Arriving in the presence of tlie august parvenu, the 
priest found himself most gTaciously received. Hideyoshi entered 
into a personal conversation with the bonze, and set forth the 
benefits of Kiu Kiu's adherence to Japan alone, and her ceasing to 
send tribute to China. At the same time he gave the priest 
clearly to understand that, willing or unwilling, the little kingdom 
was to be annexed to the mikado's empire. When the priest re- 
turned to Riu Kiu and gave the information to the king, the latter 
immediately despatched a vessel to China to inform the govern- 
ment of the designs of Japan. 

Meanwhile, the court at Seoul, highly gratified with the action 
of the Japanese government in the matter of the renegade pilots, 
gave a banquet to the embassy. Yoshitoshi had audience of the 
king, who presented him with a horse from his own stables. An 
embassy was chosen which left Seoul, in company with Yoshitoshi 
and his party, and their musicians and servants, in April, 1590, 
and, after a journey and voyage of three months, arrived at Kioto 
during the summer of 1590. At this time Hideyoshi was absent 
in Eastern Japan, not far from the modern city of Tokio, besieging 
Odawara Castle and reducing " the second Hojo " family to sub- 
mission. Arriving at Kioto in the autumn, he postponed audience 
with the Coreans in order to gain time for war preparations, for 
his heart was set on conquests beyond sea. 

Finally, after five months had passed, they were accorded an 
interview. They were allowed to ride in palanquins under the 
gateway of the palace mthout dismounting — a mark of deference 
to their high rank — all except nobles of highest grade being com- 
pelled to get out and walk. As usual, their band of musicians ac- 
companied them. 

They report Hideyoshi as a man of low appearance, but with 
eyes that shot fire through their souls. All bowed before him, 
but his conduct in general was of a very undignified character. 
This did not raise him in the estimation of his guests, who had 
already discovered his true position, which was that of a subject 
of the mikado, whose use of the imperial ''we" in his letters was, 
in their eyes, a preposterous assumption of authority. They de- 
livered the king's letter, which was addressed to Hideyoshi on 
terms of an equal as a Koku O (king of a nation, in distinction 
from the title of "Whang Ti, by which title the Heavenly Euler, or 
Emperor — the Mikado of Japan, or the Emperor of China — is 
addressed). The letter contained the usual commonplaces of 



EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 93 

friendly greeting, the names of the envoys, and a reference to the 
list of accompanying presents. 

The presents — spoken of in the usual terms of Oriental mock 
modesty — consisted of two ponies and fifteen falcons, with harness 
for bird and beast, rolls of silk, precious drugs, ink, paper, pens, 
and twenty magnificent tiger-skins. The interview over, Hideyoshi 
wished the envoys to go home at once. This they declined to do, 
but, leaving Kioto, waited at the port of Sakai. A letter to the 
king finally reached them, but couched in so insolent a tone that 
the ambassadors sent it back several times to be purged. Even in 
its improved form it was the blustering threat of a Japanese bully. 
All this consumed time, which was just what Hideyoshi wished. 

Some years before this, some Portuguese trading ships had 
landed at the island of Tane, off the south of Japan. The Japan- 
ese, for the first time, saw Europeans and heard their unintelli- 
gible language. At first all attempts to understand them were in 
vain. A Chinese ship happened to arrive about the same time, on 
which were some sailors who knew a little Portuguese, and thus 
communications were held. The foreigners, being handsomely 
treated, gave their hosts some firearms, probably pistols, taught 
their use, and how to make powder. These " queer things, able 
to vomit thunder and lightning, and emitting an awful smell," 
were presented to Shimadza, the daimio of Satsuma, who gave 
them to Hideyoshi. Among the presents, made in return to Cho- 
sen, were several of these new weapons made by Japanese. They 
were most probably sent as a hint, hke that of the Pequot's offer- 
ing of the arrows wrapped in snake-skin. With them were phea- 
sants, stands of swords and spears, books, rolls of paper, and four 
hundred gold hohan (a coin worth about $5.00). 

With the returning embassy, Hideyoshi sent the priest and a 
former colleague of Yoshitoshi to Seoul. They were instructed to 
ask the king to assist Hideyoshi to renew peaceful relations be- 
tween Japan and China. These, owing to the long continued 
piratical invasions from Japan, during the anarchy of the Ashi- 
kaga, had been suspended for some years past. 

The peaceful influences of Christianity's teachings now came 
between these two pagan nations, in the mind and person of Yoshi- 
toshi, who had professed the faith of Jesus as taught by the Eoman 
Catholic missionaries from Portugal, then in Japan. Be this as it 
may, Yoshitoshi, who had been in Seoul, and lived in Tsushima, 
being well acquainted with the military resources of the three 



94 COREA, 

countries, knew tliat war would result in ruin to Cho-sen, while, 
in measuring their swords with Chinaj the Japanese were at fear- 
ful odds. Animated by a desire to prevent bloodshed, he resolved 
to mediate with the ohve branch. He started on an independent 
mission, at his own cost, to persuade the Coreans to use their good 
offices at mediation between Japan and China, and t>us prevent 
war. Arriving at Fusan, in 1591, he forwarded his petition to 
Seoul, and waited in port ten days in hopes of the answer he de- 
sired. But aU was in vain. He received only a letter containing 
a defiant reply to his master's bullying letter. In sadness he re- 
turned to Kioto, and reported his ill-success. Surprised and en- 
raged at the indifference of the Coreans, Hideyoshi pushed on his 
war preparations with new vigor. He resolved to test to its 
utmost the miUtary strength of Japan, in order to humble China 
as well as her vassal. Accustomed to victory under the gourd- 
banner in almost every battle during the long series of intestine 
wars now ended, an army of seasoned veterans heard joyfully the 
order to prepare for a campaign beyond sea. 

Hideyoshi, during this year, nominally resigned the office of 
Kuambaku, in favor of his son, and, according to usage, took the 
title of Taiko, by which name (Taiko Sama) he is popularly known, 
and by which we shall refer to him. Among the Coreans, even of 
to-day, he is remembered by the title which still inspires their 
admiration and terror — Kuambaku. Chinese writers give a gro- 
tesque account of Hideyoshi, one of whose many names they read 
as Ping-syew-kye. They call him " the man under a tree," in re- 
ference to his early nickname of Kinomoto. He is also dubbed 
"King of Taiko." The Jesuit missionaries speak of him in their 
letters as Quabacundono (His Lordship the Kuambaku), or by one 
of his personal names, Faxiba (Hashiba). 

The Coreans were now in a strait. Though under the protec- 
torate of China, they had been negotiating with a foreign power. 
How would China like this ? Should they keep the entire matter 
secret, or should they inform their suzerain of the intended inva- 
sion of China ? They finally resolved upon the latter course, and 
despatched a courier to Peking. About the same time the mes- 
senger from Kiu Kiu had landed, and was on his way with the 
same tidings. The Eiukiuan reached Peking first, and the Corean 
arrived only to confirm the news. Yet, in spite of such overwhelm* 
ing evidence of the designs of Japan, the colossal " tortoise " could, 
at first, scarce believe " the bee " would attempt to sting. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL. 

For the pictures of camps, fleets, the details of armory and 
commissariat, and all the pomp and circumstance that make up 
the bright side of Japanese war preparations in 1591 and 1592, we 
are indebted, not only to the Japanese writers, but to those eye 
witnesses and excellent "war correspondents," the Portuguese 
missionaries then in Kiushiu, and especially to Friar Louis Frois. 
He tells us of the amplitude, vigor, and brilliancy of Taiko's meas- 
ures for invasion, and adds that the expenses therefor greatly 
burdened the " ethniques " or daimios who had to pay the cost. 
Those feudatories, whose domain bordered the sea, had to furnish 
a mighty fleet of junks, while to man them, the quota of every 
hundred houses of the fishing population was ten sailors. 

The land and naval forces assembled at Nagoya, in Hizen, now 
called Karatsu, and famous for being the chief place for the manu- 
facture of Hizen porcelain. Here a superb castle was built, while 
huge inns or resting-places Avere erected all along the road from 
Kioto. The armies gathered here during the war numbered 500,- 
000 men ; of whom 150,000 formed the army of invasion, 60,000 
the first reserve, while 100,000 were set apart as Taiko's body- 
guard ; the remainder were sailors, servants, camp followers, etc. 

Beside the old veterans were new levies of young soldiers, and 
a corps of matchlock men, who afterward did good execution 
among the Coreans. The possession of this new and terrible 
weapon gave the invaders a mighty advantage over their enemies. 
Though firearms had been known and manufactured in Japan for 
a half century, this was the first time they were used against for- 
eign enemies, or on a large scale. Taiko also endeavored to hire 
or buy from the Portuguese two ships of war, so as to use their 
artillery ; but in this he failed, and the troops were despatched in 
native-built vessels. These made a gallant display as they crowded 
together by hundreds. At the signal, given by the firing of can- 



06 COREA. 

non, the immense fleet hoisted sail and, under a fresh breeze, bore 
away to the west. 

Their swelling sails, made of long sections of canvass laced 
together, vertically, at their edges, from stem to boom (thus dif- 
fering from the Chinese, which are laced horizontally), were in- 
scribed with immense crests and the heraldic devices of feudal- 
ism, many feet in diameter. Near the top were cross-wise bands 
or stripes of black. The junks of Satsuma could be distinguished 
by the white cross in a circle ; those of Higo by the broad-banded 
ring. On one were two crossed arrow-feathers, on others the 
chess-board, the " cash " coin and palm-leaves, the butterfly, the 
cloisonne symbol, the sun, the fan, etc. Innumerable banners, 
gay with armorial designs or inscribed with Buddhist texts, hung 
on their staves or fluttered gaily as flags and streamers from the 
mastheads. Stuck into the back of many of the distinguished 
veterans, or officers, were the sashi-mono, or bannerets. Kato 
Kiyomasa, being a strict Buddhist, had for the distinctive blazon 
of his back-pennant, and on the banners of his division, the prayer 
and legend of his sect, the Nichirenites, " Namu miyo ho EBNaE kio " 
(Glory to the Holy Lotus, or Glory to the salvation-bringing book 
of the Holy Law of Buddha). On the forward deck were ranged 
heavy shields of timber for the protection of the archers. These, 
at close quarters, were to be let down and used as boarding 
planks, when the sword, pike, and grappling-hook came into play. 
Huge tassels, dangling from the prows Hke the manes of horses, 
tossed up and down as the ships rode over the waves. Each junk 
had a huge eye painted at the prow, to look out and find the path in 
the sea. "With the squadron followed hundreds of junks, laden with 
salt meat, rice-wine, dried fish, and rice and beans, which formed 
the staple of the invaders commissariat for man and horse. Trans- 
port junks, with cargoes of flints, arrows, ball, powder, wax can- 
dles, ship and camp stores, " not forgetting a single thing," sailed 
soon after, as well as the craft containing horses for the cavalry. 

Taiko did not go to Corea himself, being dissuaded by his 
aged mother. The court also wished no weaker hand than his to 
hold the reins of government while the army was on foreign 
shores. The men to whom he entrusted the leadership of the ex- 
pedition, were Konishi Yukinaga and Kato Kiyomasa. To the 
former, he presented a fine war horse, telling him to " gallop over 
the bearded savages " with it, while to the latter he gave a battle- 
flag. Konishi was an impetuous young man, only twenty-three years 



THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL. 97 

of age. He was a favorite of Taiko, and sprttng like the latter from 
the common people, being the son of a medicine dealer. His 
crest or banner was a huge, stuffed, white paper bag, such as drug- 
gists in Japan use as a shop sign. In this he followed the example 
of his august chief, who, despising the brocade banners of the im- 
perial generals, stuck a gourd on a pole for his colors. For every 
victory he added another gourd, until his immense cluster con- 
tained as many proofs of victory as there are bamboo sticks in an 
umbrella. The " gourd-banner " became the emblem of infallible 
victory. Konishi also imitated his master in his tactics — impetu- 
ous attack and close following up of victory. 

Konishi was a Christian, an ardent convert to the faith of the 
Jesuit fathers, by whom he had been baptized in 1584. In their 
writings, they call him " Don Austin " — a contraction of Augustine. 
Other Christian lords or daimios, who personally led their troops 
in the field with Konishi, were Arima, Omura, Amakusa, Bungo, 
and Tsushima. The personal name of the latter, a former envoy to 
Corea, of whom we have read before, was Yoshitoshi. He was the 
son-in-law of Konishi. Kuroda, as Mr. Ernest Satow has shown, 
is the " Kondera " of the Jesuit writers. 

Kato Kiyomasa was a noble, whose castle seat was at Kumamoto 
in Higo. From his youth he had been trained to war^ and had a 
reputation for fierce bravery. It is said that Kato suggested to 
Taiko the plan of invading Corea. His crest was a broad-banded 
circle, and his favorite weapon was a long lance with but one 
cross-blade instead of two. Kato is the " Toronosqui " of the 
Jesuit fathers, who never weary of loading his memory vrith 
obloquy. This " vir ter execrandus " was a fierce Buddhist and a 
bitter foe to Christianity. A large number oi fresh autographic 
writings had been made by the bonzes in the monasteries ex- 
pressly for Kato's division. The silk pennon, said to have been 
inscribed by Nichiren himseK and worn by Kato during the in- 
vasion, is now in Tokio, owned by Katsu Awa, and is six centuries 
old. 

With such elements at work between the two commanders, 
bitterness of religious rivalry, personal emulation, the desire to 
earn glory each for himself alone, the contempt of an old veteran 
for a young aspirant, harmony and unity of plan were not to be 
looked for. Nevertheless, the personal qualities of each general 
were such as to inspire his own troops with the highest enthu- 
siasm, and the army sailed away fully confident of victory. 
7 



98 COREA. 

What were the objects of Taiko in making this war? Evi- 
dently his original thought was to invade and humble China. 
Then followed the determination to conquer Cho-sen. Ambition 
may have led him to rival Ojin Tenno, who, in his mother's womb, 
made the conquest of Shinra, and, as the deified Hachiman, 
became the Japanese god of war. Lastly, the Jesuit fathers saw in 
this expedition a plot to kiU off the Christian leaders in a foreign 
land, and thus extirpate Christianity in Japan. To ship the 
Christians off to a foreign soil to die of wounds or disease, was 
easier than to massacre them. They make Taik5 a David, and his 
best generals Uriahs — though Cohgny, slain twenty years before, 
might have served for a more modern illustration. 

Certain it is that it was during the absence of the Christian 
leaders that the severest persecutions at home took place. It is 
probable, also, that his jealousy of the success and consequent 
popularity of the Christian generals created irresolution in Taiko's 
mind, leading him to neglect the proper support of the expedition 
and thus to bring about a gigantic failure. 

Finally, we must mention the theory of a Japanese friend, Mr. 
Egi Takato, who held that Taiko, having whole armies of unem- 
ployed warriors, all jealous of each other, was compelled, in order 
to ensure peace in Japan, to find employment for their swords. 
His idea was to send them on this distant " frontier service," and 
give them such a taste of home-sickness that peaceful life in Japan 
would be a desideratum ever afterward. 

The Coreans, by their own acknowledgment, were poorly pre- 
pared for a war with the finest soldiers in Asia, as the Japanese 
of the sixteenth century certainly were. Nor had they any leader 
of ability to direct their efforts. Their king, Sien-jo, the fifteenth 
of the house of Ni, who had already reigned twenty-six years, was 
a man of no personal importance, addicted entirely to his own 
pleasures, a drunkard, and a debauchee. Though the royal pro- 
clamation was speedily issued, calling on the people to fortify 
their cities, to rebuild the dilapidated castles, and to dig out the 
moats, long since choked by mud and vegetation, the people re- 
sponded so slowly, that few of the fortresses were found in order 
when their enemies laid siege to them. Weapons were plentiful, 
but there were no firearms, save those presented as curiosities by 
the Taiko to the king. There was little or no military organiza- 
tion, except on paper, while the naval defences were in a sad 
plight. However, they began to enroll and drill, to lay up stores 



THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL. 




Map of the Japanese Military Operations of 1592. 



100 COREA. 

of fish and grain for the army, to build ships, to repair their walls, 
and even to manufacture rude firearms. 

Yet even the most despondent of the Coreans never dreamed 
that the Japanese, on their first arrival, would sweep everything 
before them like a whirlwind, and enter the capital within eighteen 
days after their landing at Fusan. One of the first castles garri- 
soned and provisioned was that of Tong-nai, near Fusan. On 
the morning of May 25, 1592, the sentinels on the coast descried 
the Japanese fleet of eight hundred ships, containing the division of 
Konishi. Before night the invaders had disembarked, captured 
Fusan, and laid siege to Tong-nai Castle, which at once surren- 
dered. So sudden was the attack that the governor of the district, 
then in the city, was unable to escape. Konishi, writing a letter 
to the king, gave it into the hands of the governor, and made him 
swear to dehver it safely, promising him unconditional liberty if 
he did so. The governor agreed, and at once set out for Seoul ; 
but on reaching it he simply said he had escaped, and made no 
mention of the letter. His perjury was not to remain undetected, 
as later events proved. Without an hour's delay Konishi's di- 
vision, leaving Tong-nai, marched up the Nak-tong vaUey to 
Shang-chiu. 

Kato's division, delayed by a storm, arrived next day. Land- 
ing immediately, he saw with chagrin the pennons of his rival fly- 
ing from the ramparts of Tong-nai. Angry at being left behind 
by " the boy," he took the more northerly of the two routes to the 
capital. The two rival armies were now straining every nerve on 
a race to Seoul, each eager to destroy all enemies on the march, 
and reach the royal palace first. Kuroda and other generals led 
expeditions into the southern provinces of Chulla and Chung- 
chong. These provinces being subdued, and the castles garri- 
soned, they were to make their way to the capital. 

The Coreans proved themselves especially good bowmen, but 
inexpert at other weapons, their swords being of iron only, short, 
clumsy, and easily bent. Their spears, or rather pikes, were 
shorter than the Japanese, with heavy blades, from the base of 
which hung tassels. The iron heads were hollow at the base, 
forming a socket, in which the staff fitted. The Japanese spear- 
heads, on the contrary, were riveted down and into the wood, 
which was iron-banded for further security, making a weapon less 
likely to get out of order, while the blades were steel-edged. The 
Corean cavalry had heavy, three-pronged spears, which were ex- 



THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL. 101 

tremely formidable to look at, but being so beavy as to be un- 
wieldly at close quarters, tbey did little execution. Many of their 
suits of armor were handsomely inlaid, made of iron and leather. 




Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century 

but less flexible and more vulnerable than those of the Japanese. 
which were of interlaced silk and steel on a background of tougn 
buckskin, with sleeves of chain mail. The foot soldiers on either 
side were incased in a combination of iron chain and plate armor, 



102 COREA. 

but the Coreans had no glaves, or cross-blades on their pikes, and 
thus were nearly helpless against their enemy's cavalry. The 
Japanese were smooth-shaven, and wore stout helmets, with ear- 
guards and visors, but the Coreans, with open helmets, without 
visors, and whiskered faces, were dubbed " hairy barbarians." 
They were beginning to learn the use of powder, which, however, 
was so badly mixed as to be exasperatingly slow in burning. 
Their very few firearms were of the rudest and most cumbrous 
sort. They used on their ramparts a kind of wooden cannon, 
made of bamboo-hooped timber, from which they shot heavy 
wooden darts, three feet long, pointed with sharp-bladed, Y-shaped 
iron heads. The range of these clumsy missiles was very short. 
The Japanese, on the contrary, had at several sieges pieces of light 
brass ordnance, with which they quickly cleared the walls of the 
castles, and then scaled them with long and light ladders, made 
of bamboo, and easily borne by men on. a run. The Japanese 
were not only better equipped, but their tactics Avere superior. 
Their firearms frightened the Corean horses, and the long spears 
and halberds of their cavalry were used with fearful effect whil^ 
pursuing the fugitives, who were pierced or pulled off their steeds, 
or sabred in droves. Few bodies of native troops faced the inva- 
ders in the field, while fire-arrows, gunpowder, and ladders quickly 
reduced the castles. Not a few of the Corean officers were killed 
inside their fortresses by the long range fire of the sharp-shooters 
in the matchlock corps. 

The greater share of glory fell to Konishi, the younger man. 
Taking the southern route, he reached the castle of Shang-chiu, in 
the northwestern part of Kiung-sang, and capttu^ed it. Leaving a 
garrison, he pushed on to Chiun-chiu. This fortress of Chiun- 
chiu is situated in the northeastern part of Chung-chong province, 
and on the most northerly of the two roads, over which Kato was 
then marching. It was at that time considered to be the Strongest 
castle in the peninsula. On it rested the fate of the capital. It 
lay near one of the branches of the Han River, which flows past 
Seoul. At this point the two high roads to the capital, on which 
the two rivals were moving, converged so as to nearly touch. Chiun- 
chiu castle lay properly on Kato's route, but Konishi, being in the 
advance, invested it with his forces and, after a few days' siege, 
captured the great stronghold. The loss of the Coreans thus far 
in the three fortresses seized by Konishi, as reported by Friar 
Frois, was 5,000 men, 3,000 of whom feU at Chiun-chiu; while the 



THE INVASIOl^— ON TO SEOUL. 103 

Japanese liad lost but 100 killed and 400 wounded. After sucli a 
victory, " Konishi determined to conquer all Corea by himself." 

Kato and his army, arriving a few days after the victory, 
again saw themselves outstripped. Konishi's pennons floated from 
every tower, and the booty was already disposed of. The goal of 
both armies was now " the Miaco of the kingly city of Coray." 
Straining every nerve, Kato pressed forward so rapidly that the 
two divisions of the Japanese army entered Seoul by different 
gates on the same day. No resistance was offered, as the king, 
court, and army had evacuated the city three days before. The 
brilliant pageant of the Japanese army, in magnificent array of 
gay silk and glittering armor, was lost on the empty streets of 
deserted Seoul. 

When Taiko heard of the success of his lieutenants in Corea, 
especially of Konishi's exploits, he was filled with joy, and cried 
out, " Now my own son seems risen from the dead." 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 

The court at Seoul had been too mucli paralyzed by the sudden 
invasion to think of or carry out any effective means of resistance. 
Konishi had sent letters from Fusan and Shang-chiu, but these, 
through official faithlessness and the accidents of war, had failed 
in their purpose. Konishi was too fast for them. When the news 
reached Seoul, of the fall of Chiun-chiu castle, the whole populace, 
from palace to hut, was seized with a panic which, in a few hours, 
emptied the city. The soldiers deserted their post, and the cour- 
tiers their king, while the people fled to the mountains. His Ma- 
jesty resolved to go with his court into Liao Tung, but to send 
the royal princes into the northern provinces, that the people 
might realize the true state of affairs. So hurried were the prep- 
arations for flight, which began June 9th, that no food was pro- 
vided for the journey. The only horses to be obtained were farm 
and pack animals, as the royal stables had been emptied by the 
runaway soldiers. The rain fell heavily, in perpendicular streams, 
soon turning the roads to mire, and drenching the women and 
children. The Corean dress, in wet weather, is cold and uncom- 
fortable, and when soaked through, becomes extremely heavy, 
making a foot journey a severe tax on the strength. To add to 
the distress of the king, as the cortege passed, the. people along 
the road clamored, with bitter tears, that they were being aban- 
doned to the enemy. Tortured with hunger and fatigue, the 
wretched party floundered on. 

Their first day's journey was to Sunto, or Kai Seng, thirty 
miles distant. Darkness fell upon them long before they reached 
the Rin-yin River, a tributary of the Han, which joins it a few miles 
above Kang-wa Island. The city lay beyond it, and the crossing 
of the stream was done in the light of the conflagration kindled 
behind them. The king had ordered the torch to be applied to 
the barracks and fortifications which guarded the southern bank 



THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 105 

of the river. Another motive for this incendiary act was to de- 
prive their pursuers of ready materials to ferry themselves across 
the river. It was not until near midnight that the miserable fugi- 
tives, tortured with hunger and almost dead with fatigue, entered 
the city. Though feeling safe for the moment, since the Japanese 
pursuers could not cross the river without boats or rafts, most of 
the king's household were doomed still to suffer the pangs of hun- 
ger. The soldiers had stolen the food provided for the party, and 
the king had a scant supper, while his household remained hungry 
until the next day, when some of the military gave them a little 
rice. The march was resumed on the following morning and kept 
up until Ping-an was reached. Here they halted to await the 
progress of events. 

The king ordered his scattered forces to rally at the Rin-yin 
River, and, on its northern bank, to make a determined stand. 

Kato and Konishi, remaining but a short time in the capital, 
united their divisions and pressed forward to the north. Reach- 
ing the Rin-yin River, they found the Corean junks drawn up on 
the opposite side in battle array. The Japanese, being without 
boats, could not cross, and waited vainly during several days for 
something to turn up. Finally they began a feigned retreat. 
This induced a portion of the Corean army to cross the river, 
when the Japanese turned upon them and cut them down with 
terrible slaughter. "With the few rafts and boats used by the 
enemy, the Japanese matchlock men rapidly crossed the stream, 
shot down the sailors and the remaining soldiers in the junks, and 
thus secured the fleet by which the whole army crossed and began 
the march on Ping-an. 

The rival Japanese commanders, Kato and Konishi, who had 
hitherto refrained from open quarrel, now found it impossible to 
remain longer together, and drew lots to decide their future fields 
of action in the two northern provinces. Ham-kiung fell to Kato, 
who immediately marched eastward with his division, taking the high 
road leading to Gensan. Konishi, to whom the province of Ping-an 
fell, pushed on to Ping-an City, arriving on the south bank of the 
river toward the end of July, or about three weeks after leaving 
Seoul. Here he went into camp, to await the reinforcements 
under Kuroda and Yoshitoshi. These soon afterward arrived, 
having traversed the four provinces bordering on the Yellow Sea. 

The great need of the Japanese was floating material ; next to 
this, their object was to discover the fords of the river. On 



106 CORE A. 

July 20tli they made a demonstration against the fleet of junks 
along the front of the city, by sending out a few detachments of 
matchlock men on rafts. Though unsuccessful, the Corean king 
was so frightened that he fled with his suite to Ai-chiu. The 
garrison stiU remained alert and defiant. 

Delay made the Japanese less vigilant. The Corean command- 
ers, noticing this, planned to surprise their enemy by a night 
attack. Owing to bad management and delay, the various detach- 
ments did not assemble on the opposite side of the river until 
near daylight. Then forming, they charged furiously upon Ko- 
nishi's camp, and, taking his men by surprise, carried off hundreds 
of prisoners and horses, the cavalry suffering worse than the infan- 
try. Kuroda's division came gallantly to their support, and drove 
the Coreans back to the river. By this time it was broad day- 
light, and the cowardly boat-keepers, frightened at the rout of 
their countrymen, had pushed off into mid-stream. Hundreds of 
the Coreans were drowned, and the main body, left in the lurch, 
were obliged to cross by the fords. This move gave the Japanese 
the possession of the coveted secret. Flushed with victory, the 
entire army crossed over later on the same day and entered the 
city. Dispirited by their defeat, the garrison fled, after flinging 
their weapons into the castle moats and ditches of the city ; but 
all the magazines of grain, dried fish, etc., were now in the hands 
of the invaders. Frois reports, from hearsay, that 80,000 Coreans 
made the attack on Konishi's camp, 8,000 of whom were slain. 

The news of the fall of Ping-an City utterly demoralized the 
Coreans, so that, horses being still numerous, the courtiers de- 
serted the king, and the villagers everywhere looted the stores of 
food provided for the army. Many of the fugitives did not cease 
their flight until they had crossed the Yalu River, and found them- 
selves on Chinese territory. These bore to the Governor of Liao 
Tung province, who had been an anxious observer of events, the 
news of the fall of Ping-an, and the irresistible character of the 
invasion. The main body of the Corean army went into camp 
at Sun-an, between An-ton and Sun-chon. In Japan, there was 
great rejoicing at the news received from the frontier, because, as 
Frois vnrote, Konishi, " in twenty days, hath subdued so mighty a 
kingdom to the crown of Japan." Taiko sent the brilliant young 
commander a two-edged sword and a horse — " pledges of the most 
peerless honor that can possibly be done to a man." 

The Japanese soldiers felt so elated over their victory that they 



THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 



107 



expected immediate orders to march into China. With this pur- 
pose in view, Konishi sent word to the fleet at Fusan to sail round 
the western coast, into Ta-tong Kiver, in order to co-operate with 
the victorious forces at Ping-an. Had this junction taken place, 
it is probable China would have been invaded by Japanese ar- 
mies, and a general war between these rival nations might have 




Map illustrating the Campaign in the North, 1592-93. 

turned the current of Asiatic history. This, however, was not to 
be. Corean valor, with the aid of gunpowder and improved naval 
construction, prevented this, and kept three hundred miles of dis- 
tance, in a mountainous country, between the Japanese and their 
base of supplies. 

Oriental rhetoric might describe the situation in this vdse : the 
eastern dragon of invasion flew across the sea in vdnged ships, and 



108 COREA. 

speedily won the crystal of victory. But on land the dragon must 
go upon its belly. The Corean navy snatched the jewel from the 
very claws of the dragon, and left it writhing and hungry. 

In cool western phrase, sinister, but significant, Konishi was 
soon afterward obliged to " make a change of base." The bril- 
hant success of the army seems to have impressed the Japanese 
naval men with the idea that there was nothing for them to do. On 
the contrary, the Cho-sen people set to work to improve the archi- 
tecture of their vessels by having them double-decked. They also 
provided for the safety of their fighting men, by making heavy 
bulwarks, and rearing, along the upper deck, a line of strong 
planks, set edgewise, and bolted together. Behind these, archers 
discharged their missiles without danger, while from port-holes 
below they fired their rude, but effective, cannon. Appearing off 
the inlet, in which the Japanese *fieet lay at anchor, they at first 
feigned retreat, and thus enticed their enemies into pursuit. 
When well out on the open sea, they turned upon their pursuers, 
and then their superior preparation and equipment were evident 
at once. 

Lively fighting began, but this time the Coreans seemed invul- 
nerable. They not only gained the advantage by the greater 
length of their lances and grappling-hooks, with which, using 
them Hke long forks, they pulled their enemies into the sea, but 
they sunk a number of the Japanese junks, either by their artil- 
lery or by ramming them with their prows. The remnant of the 
beaten fleet crept back to Fusan, and all hope of helping the army 
was given up. The moral effect of the victory upon the Corean 
people was to inspire them to sacrifice and resistance, and in 
many skirmishes they gained the advantage. They now awaited 
hopefully the approach of Chinese reinforcements. 

To the Chinese it seemed incredible that the capture of the 
strongest castles, the capital, and the chief northern city, could be 
accomphshed without the treasonable connivance of the Coreans. 
In order to satisfy his own mind, the Chinese mandarin sent a spe- 
cial agent into Corea to examine and report. The government at 
Peking were even more suspicious, but after some hesitation, they 
despatched, not without misgiving, a small body of Chinese sol- 
diers to act as a body-guard to the Corean king. These braves 
crossed the frontier ; but while on their way to Ping-an, heard o± 
the fall of the city, and, facing about, marched back into Liao 
Tung. The king and the fragments of his court now sent courier 



THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 109 

after courier with piteous appeals to Peking for aid, even offering 
to become the subjects of China in return for succor rendered. A 
force of 5,000 men was hastily recruited in Liao Timg, who 
marched rapidly into Corea. Early in August the Japanese pick- 
ets first descried the yellow silk banners of the Chinese host. 
These were inscribed with the two characters Tai-Ming (Great 
Brightness), the distinctive blazon of the Ming dynasty. For the 
first time, in eight centuries, the armies of the rival nations were 
to meet in pitched battle. 

The Chinese seemed confident of success, and moved to the 
attack on Ping-an with neither wariness nor fear. Having in- 
vested the city, they began the assault on August 27th. The 
Japanese allowed them to enter the city and become entan- 
gled in its narrow lanes. They then attacked them from ad- 
vantageous positions, which they had occupied previously, assail- 
ing them with showers of arrows, and charging them with their 
long lances. One body of the Ming soldiers attempted to scale 
the wall of a part of the fortifications, which seemed to have been 
neglected by the Japanese, when near the top, the whole face of 
the castle being covered with climbing men, the garrison, rushing 
from their hiding-places, tumbled over or speared their enemies, 
who fell down and into the mass of their comrades below. Those 
not killed by thrusts or the fall, were shot by the gunners on the 
ramparts, and the Chinese now received into their bosoms a 
shower of lead, against which their armor of hide and iron was of 
slight avail. In this fight the Ming commander was slain. The 
rout of the Chinese army was so complete, that the fugitives never 
ceased their retreat until safely over the border, and into China. 

The government at Peking now began to understand the power 
of the enemy with whom they had to deal. An army of 40,000 
men was raised to meet the invaders, and, in order to gain time, a 
man, named Chin Biei, was sent, independently of the Coreans, to 
treat with Konishi and propose peace. Some years before the 
Japanese pirates had carried off a Chinaman to Japan, where he 
was kept captive for many years. Returning to China, he made 
the acquaintance of Chin Ikei, and gave him much information 
concerning the country and people of his captivity. Chin Ikei was 
evidently a mercenary adventurer, who could talk Japanese, and 
hoped for honors and promotion by acting as a go-between. He 
had no commission or any real authority. The Chinese seem to 
have used him only as a cat's-paw. 



110 COREA. 

Arriving at the Corean camp, at Sun-an, early in October, and 
fuHy trusting the honor of the Japanese commander, Chin Ikei 
ventured, in spite of the warnings of the frightened Coreans, and 
to their intense admiration, within the Japanese hnes, and had ^ 
conference with Konishi, Yoshitoshi, and Gensho. The Chinese 
agent agreed to proceed to Peking, and, returning to Ping-an after 
fifty days, to report the approval or disapproval of his government. 
To this Konishi agreed, and there was a truce. The conditions of 
peace, insisted on by Konishi, were that the Japanese ancient ter- 
ritory in the peninsula, namely, those portions covered by the old 
states of Shinra and Hiaksai, should be delivered over to Japan, 
to be held as vassal provinces. This demand virtually claimed all 
Corea south of the Ta-tong River, in right of ancient possession 
and recent conquest and occupation. 

Arriving in Peking, Chin Ikei found the Chinese army nearly 
ready to march, and, as their government disowned his right to 
treat with the Japanese, nothing, except the time gained for the 
Chinese, resulted from the negotiations. Meanwhile Kato Kiyo- 
masa, with his troops, had overran the whole extent of Ham- 
kiung, the longest and largest province of Corea, occupying also 
parts of Kang-wen. No great pitched battle in force was fought, 
but much hard fighting took place, and many castles were taken 
after bloody sieges. In one of these, the two royal princes, sent 
north by their father on his flight from Seoul, and many men of 
rank were captured. Among his prisoners, was " a young girl re- 
puted to be the most beautiful in the whole kingdom." In the 
pursuit of the fugitives the Japanese were often led into wild and 
lonely regions and into the depths of trackless mountains and for- 
ests, in which they met, not only human foes, but faced the tiger 
disturbed from his lair. They were often obliged to camp in 
places where these courageous beasts attacked the sentries or the 
sleeping soldiers. Kato himseK slew a tiger with his lance, after 
a desperate struggle. After a hard campaign, the main body of 
the troops fixed their camp at Am-pen, near Gensan, but closer to 
the southern border of the province. Nabeshima's camp was in 
Kang-wen, three days' journey distant. From a point on the sea- 
coast near by, in fair weather, the island cone of Dagelet is visible. 
To the question of Kato, some Corean prisoners falsely answered that 
this was Fujiyama — the worshipped mountain of the home-land, 
and " the thing of beauty and a joy forever " to the Japanese peo- 
ple. Immediately the Japanese reverently uncovered their heads 



THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. Ill 

and, kneeling on the strand, gazed long and lovingly with home- 
sick hearts — a scene often portrayed in Japanese decorative art. 

Thus the year 1592 drew near its close ; the Japanese, neces- 
sarily inactive, and the spirit of patriotism among the Coreans 
rising. Collecting local volunteer troops and forming guerUla 
bands, they kept the Japanese camps, along the road from Fusan 
to Ping-an, constantly vigilant. They ferreted out the spies who 
had kept the Japanese informed of what was going on, and 
promptly cut off their heads. Isolated from all communication, 
Konishi remained in ignorance of the immense Chinese army that 
was marching against him. The discovery, by the Japanese, of the 
existence of the regular Chinese troops in Corea, was wholly a 
matter of accident. According to Chinese report, the commander 
of the Ming army, Li-yu-son (Japanese, Ei Jo Sho), was a valiant 
hero fresh from mighty victories over the rising Manchiu tribes 
in the north. The march of his host of 60,000 men through 
Liao Tung in winter, especially over the mountain passes, was a 
severe one, and the horses are said to have sweated blood. Evi- 
dently the expectation of the leader was to drive out the inva- 
ders and annex the country to China. "When the Corean moun- 
tains appeared, as they reached the Yalu Eiver, the leader cried 
out, " There is the place which it depends on our valor to recover 
as our hereditary possessions." On the sixth day, after crossing 
the frontier, he arrived at Sun-an. It was then near the last of Janu- 
ary, 1592, and the New Year was close at hand. Word was sent 
to Konishi that Chin Ikei had arrived and was ready to reopen 
negotiations, with a favorable reply. Konishi promptly despatched 
a captain, with a guard of twenty men, to meet Chin Ikei and escort 
him within the lines. It being New Year's Day, February 2, 1593, 
the guard sallied out amid the rejoicings of their comrades who, 
tired of desolate Cho-sen, longed for peace and home. The treach- 
erous Chinamen received the Japanese with apparent cordiality, 
and feasted them until they were well drunk. Then the unsuspi- 
cious Japanese were set upon while their swords were undrawn in 
their scabbards. All were killed except two or three. Accord- 
ing to another account, they fell into an ambuscade, and fought 
so bravely that only three were taken alive. From the survivors 
Konishi first learned of the presence of the Ming army. The pre- 
text, afterward given by the lying Chinaman, was that the inter- 
preters misunderstood each other, and began a quarrel. The 
gravity of the situation was now apparent. A Chinese army, of 



112 COREA. 

whose numbers tlie Japanese were ignorant, menaced them in 
front, while all around them the natives were gathering in num- 
bers and in courage to renew the struggle for their homes and 
country. The new army from China was evidently well equipped, 
disciplined, and supplied, while the Japanese forces were far in 
an enemy's country, distant from their base of suppUes, and with 
a desolate territory in the rear. Under this gloomy aspect of 
affairs, the faces of the soldiers wore a dispirited air. 

Konishj's alternative lay between the risk of a battle and re- 
treat to Kai-seng. He was not long in resolving on the former 
course, for, in six days afterward, the Ming host, gay vdth gleam- 
ing arms, bright trappings, and dragon-bordered silk banners, 
appeared within sight of the city's towers. Konishi anxiously 
watched their approach," having posted his little force to the best 
advantage. The city was defended on the west by a steep moun- 
tainous ridge, on the north by a hill, and on the south by a river. 
The Japanese occupying the rising ground to the north, which 
they had fortified by earthworks and palisades. 

At break of day, on February 10th, the allies began a furious 
assault along the whole hne. The Japanese at first drove back their 
besiegers with their musketry fire, but the Chinese, with their 
scaling ladders, reached the inside of the works, where their num- 
bers told. When night fell on the second day of the siege, aU the 
outworks were in their possession, and nearly two thousand of the 
Japanese lay dead. The citadel seemed now an easy prize to the 
Corean generals ; but the Chinese commander, seeing that the 
Japanese were preparing to defend it to the last, and that his own 
men were exhausted, gave the order to return to camp, expecting 
to renew the attack next morning. 

Konishi had despatched a courier to Otomo, the Japanese offi- 
cer in command at Hozan, a small fortress in Whang-hai, to come 
to his aid. So far from obeying, the latter, frightened at the 
exaggerated reports of the numbers of the Chinese, evacuated his 
post and marched back to Seoul. Unable to obtain succor from 
the other garrisons, and having lost many men by battle and dis- 
ease, while many more were disabled by wounds and sickness, 
Konishi gave orders to retreat. One of his bravest captains was 
put in command of the rear-guard, and the castle was silently de- 
serted at midnight. In this masterly retreat, little was left behind 
but corpses. Crossing, upon the ice, the river, which was then 
frozen many feet in thickness, their foes were soon left behind. 



THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 113 

Next day the allied army, surprised at seeing no enemy to meet 
them, entered the castle, finding neither man nor spoil of any kind. 
The Coreans wished to pursue their enemy, but the Chinese com- 
mander, not only forbade it, but glad of a pretext by which he 
could shift the blame on some other person, cashiered the Corean 
general for allowing the Japanese to escape so easily. Konishi, 
without stopping at Kai-seng, was thus enabled to reach Seoul, 
now the headquarters of all the invading forces. Fully expecting 
the early advance of the Chinese, the men were now set to work 
in fortifying the city. 

In the flush of success, Li-yu-sung, the Ming commander, sent 
an envoy with a haughty summons of surrender to Kato and Na- 
beshima. To this Kato answered in a tone of defiance, guarded 
his noble prisoners more vigilantly, and with his own hand, in sight 
of the envoy, put the beautiful Corean girl to death, by transfixing 
her, with a spear, from waist to shoulder, while bound to a tree. 
He immediately sent reinforcements to the castle of Kie-chiu, then 
threatened by the enemy. 

The Corean patriots, who organized small detachments of 
troops, began to attack or repel the invaders in several places, and 
even to lay siege to castles occupied by Japanese wherever they 
suspected the garrison was weak. The possession of a few firearms 
and even rude artillery made them very daring. They compelled 
the evacuation of one fortress held by Kato's men by the following 
means. A Corean, named Bichosun, says a Japanese author, in- 
vented bombs, or shin-ten-rai (literally, heaven-shaking thunder), 
containing poison. Going secretly to the foot of the castle, he dis- 
charged the bombs out of a cannon into the castle. As soon as they 
fell or touched anything they burst and emitted poisonous gas, and 
every one within reach fell dead. The first of these balls fell into 
the garden of the castle, and the Japanese soldiers did not know 
what it was. They gathered around to examine it, and while doing 
so, the powder in the ball exploded. The report shook heaven and 
earth. The ball was rent into a thousand pieces, which scattered 
like stars. Every man that was hit instantly fell, and thus more than 
thirty men were killed. Even those who were not struck fell down 
stunned, and the soldiers lost their courage. Many balls were after- 
ward thrown in, which finally compelled the evacuation of the castle. 

From the above account it seems that the Coreans actually in- 
vented bombs similar to the modem iron shells. They may have 
been fired from a heavy wooden cannon, a sort of howitzer, made 
8 



114 COREA. 

by boring out a section of tree ti-unk and hooping it along its 
whole length with stout bamboo. Such cannon are often used in 
Japan. They will shoot a ten or twenty pound rocket or case of 
fireworks many hundred feet in the air. The Corean most proba- 
bly selected a spot so distant from the castle that a sortie for its 
capture could not be successfully made. Corean gunpowder is 
proverbially slow in burning, which accounts for the fact that the 
Japanese had time to gather round it. The bomb was most proba- 
bly a thin shell of iron, loaded only with gunpowder, which, like the 
Chinese mixture, contains an excess of sulphur. The military cus- 
toms of the Japanese required every man disabled by a wound to 
commit hara-kiri, so that the number of actual deaths must have 
been swelled by the suicides that followed wounds inflicted by the 
iron fragments. The Japanese were so completely demoralized 
that they evacuated the castle. 

Two other castles at Kinzan and Kishiu, being beleagured by the 
patriots, Kato started to succor the slender garrisons. The Coreans, 
hearing this, redoubled their efforts to capture them before Kato 
should arrive. They had so far succeeded that the Japanese of&cer 
in the citadel, having lost nearly aU his men, went into the keep, or 
fireproof storehouse, in the centre of the castle, and opened his. 
bowels, preferring to die by his own hands rather than allow a Corean 
the satisfaction of killing him. Just at that moment the black rings 
of Kato's banners appeared in sight. The Coreans, setting the castle 
on fire, and giving loud yells of defiance and victory, disappeared. 

Kato and Nabeshimahad received an urgent message from Seoul 
to come with their troops, and thus unite all the Japanese forces 
in a stand against the Chinese. Kato disliked exceedingly to obey 
this order because he knew it came from Konishi, but he finally 
set out to march across the country. Thorough discipline was 
maintained on the march, and the rivers were safely crossed. 
Cutting down trees, the soldiers, in companies of five or ten, hold- 
ing on abreast of logs, forded or floated over the most impetuous 
torrents, while the cavalry kept the Coreans at bay. Though an- 
noyed by attacks of guerilla parties on their flanks, the Japanese 
succeeded in reaching Seoul without serious loss. 

By the retreat of the Japanese armies, and their concentration 
in Seoul, the four northern provinces, comprising half the king' 
dom, were virtually lost to them. At the fall of Ping-an the war 
found its pivot, for the Japanese never again retrieved their for- 
tunes in Cho-sen. 



CHAPTEE XV, 

THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL. 

The allies, after looking well to their commissariat, began their 
march on Seoul, about the middle of February, with forces which 
the Japanese believed to number two hundred thousand men. The 
light cavalry formed the advance guard. The main body, after 
floundering through the muddy roads, arrived, on February 26th, 
about forty miles northwest of Seoul. 

In the first skirmish, which took place near the town shortly 
afterward, the allies drove back the Japanese advance detachment 
with heavy loss. Li-yo-sun, the commander-in-chief, now ordered 
the army to move against the capital. 

In the council of war, held by the Japanese generals, Ishida, 
who, like Konishi, was a Christian in faith, advised the evacuation 
of Seoul. This, of course, provoked Kato, who rose and angrily 
said : " It is a shame for us to give up the capital before we have 
seen even a single banner of the Ming army. The Coreans and 
our people at home will call us cowards, and say we were afraid of 
the Chinamen." Hot words then passed between the rival generals, 
but Otani and others made peace between them. All concluded 
that, in order to guard against treason, the Coreans in the capital 
must be removed. Thereupon, large portions of the city were set 
on fire, and houses, gates, bridges, public and private buildings, 
were soon a level waste of ashes. The people, old and young, of 
both sexes, sick and well, were driven out at the point of the lance. 
To the stern necessities of war were added the needless carnage 
of massacre, and hundreds of harmless natives were cruelly mur- 
dered. Only a few lusty men, to be used as laborers and burden- 
bearers, were spared. 

Years after, the memory of this frightful and inhuman slaugh- 
ter, burdening the conscience of" many a Japanese soldier, drove 
him a penitent suppliant into the monasteries. There, exiled from 
the world, with shaven head and priestly robe, he spent his days 



116 COREA. 

in fasting, vigils, and prayers for pardon, seeking to obtain Nir- 
vana with the Eternal Buddha. 

Meanwhile the work of fortification went on. The advance 
guard of the Chinese host were now within a few miles of the city, 
and daily skirmishes took place. The younger Japanese officers 
clamored to lead the van against the Chinese, but Kobayekawa, 
an elderly general, was allowed to arrange the order of battle, and 
the Japanese army marched out from the capital to the attack in 
three divisions, Kobayekawa leading the third, or main body of ten 
thousand men, the others having only three thousand each. In the 
battle that ensued the Japanese were at first unable to hold their 
ground against the overwhelming forces of their enemies. The Chi- 
nese and Coreans drove back their first and second divisions with 
heavy loss. Then, thinking victory certain, they began a pursuit 
with both foot soldiers and cavalry, which led them into disorder and 
exhausted their strength: "When well wearied, Kobayekawa, having 
waited till they were too far distant from their camp to receive 
reinforcements, led his division in a charge against the allies. The 
battle then became a hand-to-hand fight on a gigantic scale. The 
Chinese were armed mainly with swords, which were short, heavy, 
and double-edged. The allies had a large number of cavalry en- 
gaged, but the ground being miry from the heavy rains, they were 
unable to form or to charge with effect. Their advantage in other 
respects was more than counterbalanced by the length of the Japan- 
ese swords, the strength of their armor, and their veteran valor and 
coolness. Even the foot soldiers wielded swords having blades 
usually two, but sometimes three and four, feet long. 

The Japanese have ever prided themselves upon the length, 
slenderness, temper, and keen edge of their blades, and look with 
unmeasured contempt upon the short and clumsy weapons of the 
continental Asiatics. They proudly call their native land " The 
country niled by a slender sword." Marvellous in wonder and 
voluminousness are their legends, literature, and exact history 
concerning ken (two-edged, short falchion), and katana (two-handed 
and single-edged sabre). In this battle it was the sword alone 
that decided the issue, though firearms lent their deadly aid. The 
long, cross-bladed spears of their foot soldiers were also highly 
effective, first, in warding off the sabre strokes of the Chinese cav- 
alry, and then unhorsing them, either by thrust or grapple. One 
general of high rank was pulled off his steed and killed. 

The Japanese leaders were in their best spirits, as well as in 



THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL. 117 

their finest equipments. One was especially noticeable by his 
gilded helmet that flashed and towered conspicuously. It was 
probably that of Kato, whose head-gear was usually of incredible 
height and dazzling splendor. 

After a long struggle and frightful slaughter, the allies were 
beaten back in confusion. Ten thousand Chinese and Coreans, 
according to Japanese accounts, were slaughtered on this bloodiest 
day and severest pitched battle of the first invasion. 

The Chinese suffered heavily in officers, and their first taste of 
war in the field with such veterans as the soldiers of Taiko was 
discouraging in the extreme. Li-yo-sun drew off his forces and 
soon after retired to Sunto. Not knowing that Kato had got into 
Seoul, and fearing an attack from the rear, on Ping-an, he drew 
off his main body to that city, leaving a garrison at Sunto. Tired, 
disgusted, and scared, the redoubtable Chinaman, hkfe " the beaten 
soldier that fears the top of the tall grass,'* sent a lying report to 
Peking, exaggerating the numbers of the Japanese, and asking for 
release from command, on the usual Oriental plea of poor health. 
As for the Japanese, they had lost so heavily in killed, that they 
were unable to follow up the victory, if victory it may be called. 
A small force, however, pressed forward and occupied Kai-jo, 
while the main body prepared to pass a miserable winter in the 
desolate capital. 

The Corean stronghold of An-am was also assaulted. This cas- 
tle was built on a precipitous steep, having but one gate and flank 
capable of access, and that being a narrow, almost perpendicular, 
cutting through the rocks. The attacking force entered the 
gloomy valley shut in from light by the luxuriant forest, which 
darkened the path even in the daytime. At the tops, and on the 
ledges of the rocks beetling over the entrance-way, the Corean 
archers took up advantageous positions, while others of the garri- 
son, with huge masses of rock and timber piled near the ledge, 
stood ready to hurl these upon the invaders. 

Awaiting in silence the approach of their enemies, they soon 
saw the Japanese fan-standards and paper-strip banners approach, 
when these were directly beneath them, every bow twanged, and a 
shower of arrows rained upon the invaders, while volleys of stones 
feU into their ranks, crushing heads and helmets together. The 
besiegers were compelled to draw off and arrange a new attack ; 
but in the night the garrison withdrew. Next day the Japanese en- 
tered, garrisoned the castle, and decorated it with their streamers. 



118 COREA. 

The long-continued abandonment of the soil, owing to the war 
and the presence of three large armies, bore their natural fruits, 
and turned fertile Corea into a land of starvation. Famine began 
its ravages of death on friend and foe alike. The peasants peti- 
tioned their government for food, but none was to be had. Thou- 
sands of the poor people died of starvation. The fathers suffered 
in camp, while the dead mothers lay unburied in the houses, and 
the children, tortured with hunger, cried for food. One day a 
captain in the Chinese army found, by the roadside, an emaciated 
infant vainly seeking for nourishment from the cold and rigid 
breast of its dead mother. Touched with compassion, the warrior 
took the child and reared him to manhood under his ovni care. 

Some rice was distributed to the wretched people from the 
government store-houses in certain places, but still the groans and 
cries of the starving filled the air. Pestilence entered the Japan- 
ese camp, and thousands of the home-sick soldiers died inglori- 
ously. The long winter rains made the living despondent and 
gloomy enough to commit hara-kiri, while the state of the roads 
and the dashing courage of the guerillas, who pushed their raids 
to the very gates of the camps, made foraging an unpopular duty 
among the men. In such discomfort, winter wore away, and tardy 
spring approached. In this state of affairs the Japanese were 
willing to listen, and the allies ready to offer, terms of peace. A 
Corean soldier, named Kijunchin, by permission of his superior 
officer, had penetrated into Seoul to visit the two captive princes. 
On his return to the camp, he stated that the Japanese generals 
were very homesick and heartily tired of the war. At the same 
time, a letter was received from Konishi, stating his readiness to 
receive terms of peace. Chin Ikei was again chosen to negotiate. 
Beaching the Japanese lines at Kai-jo, he held an interview with 
Konishi, and the following points of agreement were made : 

1. Peace between the three countries. 

2. Japan to remain in possession of the three southern prov- 
inces of Cho-sen. 

3. Corea to send tribute to Japan as heretofore. 

4. Hideyoshi to be recognized as King of Corea. The three 
other articles drawn up were not made public, but the acknowl- 
edgment of Taiko as the equal of the Emperor of China was evi- 
dently one of them. The Japanese, on their part, were to return 
the two captive princes, withdraw all their armies to Fusan, and 
evacuate the country when the stipulations were carried out. 



THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL. 119 

Botli parties were weary of the war. The Ming commander 
had requested to be relieved of his command and to return to 
China, while the three old gentlemen, who were military advisers 
in the Japanese camp, yearning for the pleasures of Kioto, wrote 
to Taiko, asking leave to come home, telling him the object of 
his ambition was on the eve of attainment, and that he was to 
receive investiture from the Chinese emperor, and recognition as 
an equal. 

Scholarship and literature were not at a very high premium at 
that time among the Japanese military men. The martial virtues 
and accomplishments occupied the time and thoughts of the war- 
riors to the exclusion of book learning and skill at words. The 
sword for the soldier, and the pen for the priest, was the rule. 
The bluff warrior in armor looked with contempt, not unmingled 
with awe, upon the shaven-pated man of ink and brush. One of 
the bonzes from the monastery was usually of necessity attached to 
the service of each commander. It was by reason of the ignorance, 
as well as the vanity, of the illiterate Japanese generals that such a 
mistake, in supposing that Taiko was to be recognized as equal to 
the Emperor of China, was rendered possible. The wily Chin Ikei, 
who drove a lucrative trade as negotiator, hoodwinked Konishi, who 
would not have been thus outwitted if he had had a bonze present 
to inspect the writing. Being a Christian, however, he was on bad 
terms with the bonzes. 

In both camps there were those who bitterly opposed any 
peace short of that which the sword decided. The Corean gen- 
erals chafed at the time wasted in parley, and wished to march on 
the Japanese at once, whose ranks they knew were decimated 
with sickness, and their spirit and discipline relaxed under the 
idea of speedy return home. An epidemic had also bioken out 
among their horses, probably owing to scant provender. Thus 
crippled and demoralized, victory would certainly follow a well- 
planned attack in force. Within the camp of the invaders Achil- 
les and Agamemnon were as far as ever from harmony. Kato 
sullenly refused to entertain the idea of peace, partly because 
Konishi proposed it, but mainly because, if the two princes were 
given up, his achievements would be brought to naught, and 
all the glory of the war would redound to his rival. Only af- 
ter the earnest representation by his friends of the empty gran- 
aries, and the danger of impending starvation, the great sickness 
among the troops, and the fearful loss of horses, was he in- 



120 COREA. 

duced to agree with the other commanders that Seoul should be 
evacuated. 

Meanwhile, the allies were advancing toward the capital. 

On May 22, 1593, the Japanese, with due precautions, evacua- 
ted the city, and the vanguard of the Chinese army entered on the 
same day. The retreat of the Japanese was effected in good 
order, and, to guard against treachery, they bivouacked in the 
open air, avoiding sleeping in the houses or villages, and rigidly 
kept up the vigilance of their sentinels and the discipline of the 
divisions. In this way the various detachments of the army safely 
reached Fusan, Tong-nai, Kinka, and other places near the coast. 
Here, after fortifying their camps, they rested for a space from the 
alarms of war, almost within sight of their native land. The allies 
later on marched southward and went into camp a few leagues to 
the northward. Since crossing the Yalu Eiver, the Chinese had 
lost by the sword and disease twenty thousand men. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

CESPEDES, THE CHRISTIAN CHAPLAIN. 

The aspect of affairs had now changed from that of a trium- 
phal march through Corea into China and to Peking, to long and 
tedious camp life, with uncertain fortunes in the field, which prom- 
ised a long stay in the peninsula. Konishi had now breathing time 
and space for reflection. Being an ardent Christian — after the 
faith and practice of the Portuguese Jesuits — he wished for him- 
seK and his fellow-believers the presence and ministrations of one 
of the European friars to act as chaplain. He therefore sent, prob- 
ably when at or near Fusan, a message to the superior of the 
Mission in Japan, asking for a priest. 

Toward the end of 1593, the Yice-Provengal of the Company of 
the Jesuits despatched Father Gregorio de Cespedes and a Japan- 
ese convert named "Foucan Eion " to the army in Cho-sen. They 
left Japan and spent the winter in Tsushima, the domain of Yoshi- 
toshi, one of the Christian lords then in the field. Early in the 
spring of 1594 they reached Corea, arriving at Camp Comangai (most 
probably a name given by the Japanese after the famous hero Ku- 
magaye), at which Konishi made his headquarters. The two holy 
men immediately began their labors among the Japanese armies. 
They went from castle to castle, and from camp to camp, preach- 
ing to the pagan soldiers, and administering the rite of baptism 
to all who professed the faith, or signed themselves with the cross. 
They administered the sacraments to the Christian Japanese, com- 
forted and prayed with the sick, reformed abuses, assisted the 
wounded, and shrived the dying. New converts were made and 
old ones strengthened. Dying in a foreign land, of fever or of 
wounds, the soul of the Japanese man-at-arms was comforted with 
words of hope from the lips of the foreign priest. Held before his 
glazing eyes gleamed the crucifix, on which appeared the image of 
the world's Redeemer. The home-sick warrior, pining for wife 
and babe, was told of the " House not made with hands." 



122 CORE A. 

The two bretkren seem to liave been very popular among the 
Japanese soldiers. Perhaps they already dreamed of planting the 
faith in Corea, when, suddenly, their work was arrested at its height 
by Kato, whose jealousy of Konishi was only equalled by his fanati- 
cal zeal for the Buddhist faith. Being in Japan he denounced the 
foreign priest to Taiko, declaring that these zealous endeavors to 
propagate the Christian faith only concealed a vast conspiracy 
against himself and the power of the mikado. At this time Taiko 
was dealing with the Jesuits in Japan, and endeavoring to rid the 
country of their presence by shipping them off to China. He 
fully believed that they were political as well as religious emissa- 
ries, and that their aim was at temporal power. These suspicions, 
as every student of Japan knows, were more than well founded. 

Besides accusing Cespedes, Kato insinuated that Konishi him- 
self was leading the conspiracy. The cry of cho-teki (rebel, or 
enemy of the mikado) in Japan is enough to blacken the character 
of the bravest man and greatest favorite. Treason against the mi- 
kado being the supreme crime, Konishi found it necessary to 
return to Kioto, present himself before Taiko, and cleanse his repu- 
tation even from suspicion. This the lull in the active operations, 
occasioned by the negotiations of Chin Ikei, enabled him to do. 

Immediately sending back the priest, he shortly afterward 
crossed the straits, and, meeting Taiko, succeeded in fuUy ingrati- 
ating himself and allaying all suspicion. 

The wife of Konishi had also embraced the Christian faith, her 
baptized name being Marie. To her, while in camp, he had sent 
two Corean lads, both of whom were of rank and gentle blood, the 
elder being called in the letters of the Jesuits '' secretary to the 
Corean king." He was the son of a brave captain in the army, 
and was thirteen years old. The lady, Marie, touched by their 
misfortune, kept the younger to be educated in the faith under 
her own direction, and sent "the elder to the Jesuit seminary in 
Kioto. Of this young man's career we catch some glimpses from 
the letters of the missionaries. At the college he was a favorite, 
by reason of his good character, gentle manners, and fine mind. 
Professing the faith, he was baptized in 1603, taking the name of 
Vincent. He began his religious work by instructing and cate- 
chising Japanese and his numerous fellow Coreans at Nagasaki. 
When about thirty-three years old, the Jesuits, wishing to estab- 
lish a mission in Corea, proposed to send him to his native land as 
missionary ; but not being able, on account of the persecution 



CESPEDES, THE CHRISTIAN CHAPLAIN. 123 

then raging in Japan, lie was chosen by the Father Provengal to 
go to Peking, communicate with the Jesuits there, and enter Corea 
from China. At Peking he remained four years, being unable to 
enter his own country by reason of the Manchius, who then held 
control of the northern provinces of Manchuria and were advancing 
on Peking, to set on the throne that family which is still the iniling 
dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Vincent was recalled to Japan 
in 1620, where, in the persecutions under lyemitsu, the third To- 
kugawa sho-gun, he fell a victim to his fidelity, and was martyr- 
ized in 1625, at the age of about forty-four. 

Warned of the dangers of patronizing the now proscribed relig- 
ion, there was no farther return of zeal on Konishi's part, or that 
of the other Christian princes, and no farther opportunity was 
given to plant the seeds of the faith in the desolated land. 

Of the large numbers of Corean prisoners sent over to Japan, 
from time to time, many of those living in the places occupied by 
the missionaries became Christians. Many more were sold as 
slaves to the Portuguese. In Nagasaki, of the three hundred or 
more living there, most of them were converted and baptized. 
They easily learned the Japanese language so as to need no inter- 
preter at the confessional — a fact which goes to prove the close 
affinity of the two languages. 

Others, of gentle blood and scholarly attainments, rose to posi- 
tions of honor and eminence under the government, or in the 
households of the daimios. Many Corean lads were adopted by 
the returned soldiers or kept as servants. When the bloody per- 
secutions broke out, by which many thousand Japanese found 
death in the hundred forms of torture which hate and malice in- 
vented, the Corean converts remained steadfast to their new-found 
faith, and suffered martyrdom with fortitude equal to that of their 
Japanese brethren. But, by the army in Corea, or by Cespedes, 
no seed of Christianity was planted or trace of it left, and its in- 
troduction was postponed by Providence until two centuries latere 



CHAPTER XYH. 

DIPLOMACY AT KIOTO AND PEKING. 

The Chinese ambassadors, with whom was Chin Ikei, set sail 
from Fusan, and reached Nagoya, in Hizen, on June 22d. Taiko 
received them in person, and entertained them in magnificent 
style. His lords imitated the august example set them, and both 
presents and attentions were showered upon the guests. Among 
other entertainments in their honor was a naval review, in which 
hundreds of ships, decorated with the heraldry of feudahsm, were 
ranged in line. The boats moved in procession ; the men, standing 
up as they worked the sculls, sang in measured chorus. The 
sheaves of glittering weapons, spears, and halberds arranged at 
their bows, were inlaid with gold and pearl. The cabins were 
arranged with looped brocades and striped canvas, with huge 
crests and imperial chrysanthemums of colossal size. The am- 
bassadors were delighted, both with the lovely scenery and the 
attentions paid them, and so remained until August. 

Little, however, came of this mission. Taiko sent orders to 
Kato to release the Corean princes and nobles ; and Chin Ikei, 
who usually went off like a clumsy blunderbuss, at half-cock, hied 
back to Cho-sen to tell the news and get the credit of having se- 
cured this concession. The Coreans were made to bear the blame 
of the war, and the envoys of China, in good humor, returned to 
Peking in company with a Japanese ambassador. 

Yet Taiko, though willing to be at peace with China, did not 
intend to spare unhappy Cho-sen. To soothe the spirit of Kato, 
the order was given to capture the castle of Chin-chiu, forty miles 
west of Fusan, which had not yet been taken by the Japanese, 
though once before invested. 

Alarmed at the movements of the invaders, the Coreans tried 
to revictual and garrison the devoted fortress, and even to attack 
the enemy on the way. Unable, however, to make a stand against 
their foes, they were routed with frightful carnage. Kato led 



DIPLOMACY AT KIOTO AND PEKING. 125 

the besieging force, eager to make speedy capture so as to irritate 
the Coreans and prevent the peace he feared. 

He invested the castle which the Coreans had not been able to 
reinforce, but the vigorous resistance of the garrison, who threw 
stones and timber upon the heads of his assaulting parties, drove 
him to the invention of Kame-no-kosha, or tortoise-shell wagons, 
which imitated the defensive armor of that animal. Collecting 
together several hundred green hides, and dry-hardening them in 
the fire, he covered four heavily built and slant-roofed wagon* 
with them. These vehicles, proof against fire, missiles, or a crush- 
ing weight, and filled with soldiers, were pushed forward to the 
foot of the walls, "While the matchlock men in the lines engaged 
those fighting on the ramparts, the soldiers, under the projecting 
sheds of the tortoise wagons, that jutted against the walls, began 
to dig under the foundations. These being undermined, the stones 
were pried out, and soon fell in sufficient number to cause a 
breach. Into this fresh soldiers rushed and quickly stormed the 
castle. The slaughter inside was fearful. 

The news of the fall of this most important fortress fell like a 
clap of thunder in Peking, and upon the Corean king, who was pre- 
paring to go back to Seoul. The Chinese government appointed 
fresh commissioners of war, and ordered the formation of a new 
and larger army. 

The immediate advance of the invaders on the capital was ex- 
pected, but Kato, having obeyed Taiko's orders, left a garrison in 
the castle and fell back on Fusan. 

The Chinese general, upbraiding Chin Ikei for his insincerity, 
sent him to Konishi again. Their interview was taken up mainly 
with mutual charges of bad faith. Chin Ikei, returning, tried to 
persuade the Chinese commander to evacuate Corea, or, at least, 
retire to the frontier. Though he refused, being still under orders 
to fight, the Chinese army moved back from Seoul toward Man- 
churia, while Konishi, on his own responsibility, despatched a letter 
to the Chinese emperor. Large detachments of the Japanese 
army actually embarked at Fusan, and returned to Japan. In the 
lull of hostilities, negotiations were carried on at Peking and 
Kioto, as well as between the hostile camps. The pen took the 
place of the matchlock, and the ink-stone furnished the ammuni- 
tion. 

A son was bom to Taiko, and named Hideyori. A great pag- 
eant, in honor of the infant, was given at the newly built and 



126 COREA. 

Splendid castle of Fushimi, near Kioto, whicli was graced by a 
large number of the commanders and veterans of Corea, wbo bad 
returned home on furlough, while negotiations were pending. The 
result of the Japanese mission to Peking was the despatch of an 
ambassador extraordinary, named Rishosei, with one of lesser 
rank, to Japan, by way of Fusan. 

On his arrival, he requested to see Konishi, who, however, 
evaded him, excusing himself on the plea of expecting to hear 
from Taiko, after which he promised to hold an interview. Ko- 
nishi then departed for Japan, taking Chin Ikei with him. On 
his return he still avoided the Chinese envoy, for he had no defin- 
ite orders, and the other generals refused to act without direct 
word from their master in Kioto. Meanwhile Chin Ikei, consumed 
with jealousy, and angry at the Peking mandarins for ignoring 
him and withholding official recognition and honors, planned re- 
venge against Rishosei ; for Chin Ikei believed himself to have 
done great things for Cho-sen and China, and yet he had received 
neither thanks, pay, nor promotion for his toils, while Rishosei, 
though a young man, with no experience, was honored with high 
office solely on account of being of rank and in official favor at 
Peking. Evidently with the intent of injuring Rishosei, Chin Ikei 
gave out that Taiko did not wish to be made King of Ch5-sen, 
but had sent an envoy to China merely to have a high ambassador 
of China come to Japan, that he might insult or rather return the 
insult of the sovereign of China, in the person of his envoy, by 
making him a prisoner or putting him to death. Konishi and 
Chin Ikei again crossed to Japan to arrange for the reception of 
the Chinese envoys. 

The reports started by Chin Ikei, coming to the ears of Risho- 
sei, so frightened him that he fled in disguise from Fusan, and 
absconded to China. His colleague denounced him as a coward, 
and declaring that the Chinese government desired only " peace 
with honor," sailed with his retinue and two Corean officers to 
Japan. "And Satan [Chin Ikei], came also among them." All 
landed safely at Sakai, near Ozaka, October 8, 1596. 

Audience was duly given with pomp and grandeur in the gor- 
geous castle at Fushimi, on October 24th. The ambassador 
brought the imperial letter, the patent of rank, a golden seal, a 
crown, and silk-embroidered robes of state. At a banquet, given 
next day, these robes were worn by Taiko and his officers. 

Formalities over, the Ming emperor's letter was delivered to 



DIPLOMACY AT KIOTO AND PEKING. 127 

Taiko, who at once placed it in the hands of three of the most 
learned priests, experts in the Chinese language, and ordered them 
to translate its contents literally. 

To Konishi, then at Ki5to, came misgivings of his abilities as a 
diplomatist. Visiting the bonzes, he earnestly begged them to 
soften into polite phrase anything in the letter that might irritate 
Taiko. But the priests were inflexibly honest, and rendered the 
text of the letter into the exact Japanese equivalent. In it the 
patent of nobility first granted to the Ashikaga sho-gun (1403- 
1425) was referred to; and the gist of this last imperial letter 
was : " We, the Emperor of China, appoint you, Taiko, to be the 
King of Japan" (Nippon O). In other words, the mighty Kuam- 
baku of Japan was insulted by being treated no better than one 
of the Ashikaga generals ! 

This was the mouse that was born from so great a mountain 
of diplomacy. The rage of Taiko was so great that, with his own 
hands, he would have slain Konishi, had not the bonzes plead for 
his life, claiming that the responsibility of the negotiations rested 
upon three other prominent persons. As usual, the "false-hearted 
Coreans " were made to bear the odium of the misunderstanding. 

The Chinese embassy, dismissed in disgrace, returned in Janu- 
ary, 1596, and made known their humiliation at Peking ; while 
the King of Corea, who had been living in Seoul during the ne- 
gotiations, appealed at once for speedy aid against the impending 
invasion. Hideyoshi again applied himself with renewed vigor to 
raising and drilling a new army, and obtaining ships and sup- 
plies. A grand review of the forces of invasion, consisting of one 
hundred and sixty-three thousand horse and foot soldiers, was held 
under his inspection. Kuroda, Nagamasa, and other generals, 
with their divisions, sailed away for Fusan, January 7, 1597, and 
joined the army under Konishi and Kato. 

The new levies from China, which had been waiting under 
arms, crossed the Yalu and entered from the west at about the 
same time. Marching down through Ping-an and Seoul, a divi- 
sion of ten thousand garrisoned the castle of Nan-on, in Chulla. 
The Coreans, meanwhile, fitted out a fleet, under the command of 
Genkai, expecting a second victory on the water. 

An extinguisher was put on Chin Ikei, who was suspected of 
being in the pay of Konishi. Genkai, a Chinese captain, had long 
believed him to be a dangerous busybody, without any real powers 
from the Peking government, but only used by them as a decoy 



128 CORBA. 

duck, while, in reality, he was in the pay of the Japanese, and the 
chief hinderance to the success of the allied arms. On the other 
hand, this volunteer politician, weary and disappointed at not re- 
ceiving from China the high post and honors which his ambition 
coveted, was in a strait. Taiko urged him to secure from China 
the claim of Japan to the southern half of Corea. China, on the 
contrary, ordered him to induce the Japanese generals to leave 
the country. Thus situated, Chin Ikei knew not what to do. He 
sent a message, through a priest, to Kato, urging him to make 
peace or else meet an army of one hundred thousand Chinamen. 
The laconic reply of the Japanese was : " I am ready to fight. Let 
them come." 

Bluffed in his last move, and aware of the plots of Genkai, his 
enemy. Chin Ikei, at his wits' end, resolved to escape to Konishi's 
camp. The spies of Genkai immediately reported the fact to their 
master, who lay in wait for him. Suddenly confronting his vic- 
tim, they demanded his errand. " I am going to treat with Kato, 
the Japanese general ; I shall be back in one month," answered 
Chin Ikei. He was seized and, on being led back, was throvrai 
into prison. A searching party was then despatched at once to 
his house. There they found gold, treasure, and jewels " moun- 
tain high," and his wife living in luxury. Believing aU these to 
have been purchased by Japanese gold, and the fruits of bribery, 
the Chinese confiscated the spoil and imprisoned the traitor's 
family. 

This ended all further negotiations until the end of the war. 
Henceforth, on land and water, by the veterans of both armies, 
with fresh levies, both of allies and invaders, the issue was tried 
by sword and siege. 



CHAPTEE XYin. 

THE SECOND INVASION. 

The plan of the second invasion was to land all the Japanese 
forces at Fusan, and then to divide them into three columns, 
which were to advance by the south to Nan-on castle in Chulla, 
and by two roads, northward and westward, to the capital. As 
before, Konishi and Kato Kiyomasa were the two field command- 
ers, while Hideaki, a noble lad, sixteen years old, was the nomi- 
nal commander-in-chief. 

The Coreans had made preparations to fight the Japanese at 
sea as well as on land. Their fleet consisted of about two hundred 
vessels of heavy build, for butting and ramming, as well as for ac- 
commodating a maximum of fighting men. They were two hun- 
dred and fifty or three hundred feet in length, with huge sterns, hav- 
ing enormous rudders, the tillers of which were worked by eight 
men. Their high, flat prows were hideously carved and painted to 
represent the face and open jaws of a dragon, or demon, ready to 
devour. Stout spars or knotted logs, set upright along the gunwale, 
protected the men who worked the catapults, and heavily built 
roofed cabins sheltered the soldiers and gave the archers a vantage 
ground. The rowers sat amidships, between the cabins and the 
gunwales, or rather over on these latter, in casements made of 
stout timber. The catapults were on deck, between the bows. 
They were twenty-four feet long, made of tree-trunks a yard in 
circumference. Immense bows, drawn to their notches by wind- 
lasses, shot iron-headed darts and bolts six feet long and four in- 
ches thick. On some of the ships towers were erected, in which 
cannon, missile-engines, and musketeers were stationed, to shoot 
out fire-arrows, stones, and balls. At close quarters the space at 
the bows — about one-third of the deck — was free for the move- 
ments of the men wielding §pear and sword, and for those who 
plied the gTappling hooks or boarding planks. The decks crowded 
with men in armor, the glitter of steel and flash of oars, the blare 



130 COREA. 

of the long Corean trumpets, and the gay fluttering of thousands 
of silken flags and streamers made brilliant defiance. 

The Japanese accepted the challenge, and, saiHng out, closed 
with the enemy. Wherever they could, they ran alongside and 
gave battle at the bows. Though their ships were smaller, they 
were more manageable. In some cases, they ran under the high 
stems and climbed on board the enemy's ships. Once at hand to 
hand fight, their superior swordsmanship quickly decided the day. 
Their most formidable means of offence which, next to their can- 
non, won them the victory, were their rockets and fire-arrows, 
which they were able to shoot into the sterns, where the dry 
wood soon caught fire, driving the crews into the sea, where they 
drowned. Two hours fighting sufficed, by which time one hun- 
dred and seventy-four Corean ships had been burned or taken. 
News of this brilliant victory was at once sent by a swift vessel to 
Japan. 

Endeavors were made to strengthen the garrison at Nan-on, 
but the Japanese general, Kato Yoshiakira, meeting the reinforce- 
ments on their way, prevented their design. Kato Kiyomasa, 
changing his plans, also marched to Nan-on, resolving to again, 
if possible, snatch an honor from his rival. As usual, the younger 
man was too swift for him. Konishi now moved his entire com- 
mand in the fleet up the Sem Eiver, in Chulla province, and land- 
ing, camped at a place called Uren, eighteen ri from Nan-on castle. 
He rested here five days in the open meadow land to' allow the 
horses to relax their limbs after the long and close confinement in 
the ships. From a priest, whom they found at this place, they 
learned that the garrison of Nan-on numbered over 20,000 Chi- 
nese and Coreans, the reinforcements in the province, and on their 
way, numbered 20,000 more, while in the north was another Chi- 
nese corps of 20,000. 

At the council of war held, it was resolved to advance at once 
to take the castle before succor came. In spite of many lame 
horses, and the imperfect state of the commissariat, the order to 
march was given. Men and beasts were in high spirits, but many 
of the horses were ridden to death, or rendered useless by the 
forced march of the cavalry. Early on the morning of September 
21st, the advance guard camped in the morning fog at a distance of 
a mile from the citadel. The main body, coming up, surrounded 
it on all sides, pitched their camp, threw out their pickets, set up 
their standards, and proceeded promptly to fortify their lines. 



THE SECOND INVASION. 



131 



Nan-on castle was of rectangular form, enclosing a space nearly 
two miles square, as each side was nine thousand feet long. Its 




Map of the Operations of the Second Invasion. 



waUs, which were twelve feet high, were built of great stones, laidi 
together without cement. Though no mortar had been used on 
wall or tower, shell-lime had been laid over the outside, in which. 



13S COREA. 

glistened innumerable fragments of nacre and the enamel of 
shells, giving the structure the appearance of glittering porcelain. 
At the angles, and at intervals along the flanks, v^ere towers, two 
or three stories high. The four ponderous gates were of stone, 
fourteen feet high. 

The preparations for defence were all that Chinese science 
could suggest. In the dry ditch, three hundred feet wide, was an 
abatis of tree-trunks, with their branches outward, behind which 
were iron-plated wagons, to be filled with archers and spearmen. 
From the towers, fire-missiles and shot from firearms were in 
readiness. 

The weak points, at which no enemy was expected, and for 
which preparations for defence were few, were on the east and 
west. 

No effect being produced during the first two days, either by 
bullets or fire-arrows, Konishi, on the third, sent large detach- 
ments of men into the rice-fields, then covered with a promising 
harvest of growing rice, which the farmers, in the hope of peace, 
had sown. Reaping the green, juicy stalks, the hundreds of sol- 
diers gathered an enormous quantity of sheaves and waited, with 
these and their stacks of bamboo poles and ladders, until night. 
In the thick darkness, and in perfect silence, they moved to a part 
of the wall which, being over twenty feet high, was but slightly 
guarded, and began to build a platform of the sheaves. Four Ja- 
panese, reaching the top by chmbing, raised the war-cry, and one 
of the towers being set on fire by their arrows, the work was dis- 
covered. Yet the matchlock men kept the walls swept by their 
bullets, while the work of piling fresh sheaves and bundles of 
bamboo went on. The greenness of the rice-stalks made the mass 
both firm and fire-proof. At last the mound was so high that it 
overtopped the wall. The men now climbed over the ramparts 
by the hundreds, and the swordsmen, leaping into the castle, 
began the fight at hand to hand. Most of the Chinese fought 
with the courage of despair, while others, in their panic, opened 
the gates to escape, by which more of the besiegers entered. The 
garrison, smitten in front and rear, were driven to the final waU 
by Konishi' s troops. On the other side a body of picked men, 
from Kato's army, joined in the slaughter. They had entered the 
castle at the rear, by scaling a rugged mountain path known only 
to the Corean prisoners, whose treachery they had purchased by 
the promise of their lives. Between the two attacking forces the 



THE SECOND INVASION. 133 

Coreans and Chinese, wlio could not escape, were dain by thou- 
sands. 

Among many curious incidents narrated by Ogawucbi, who 
tells the story of this siege and attack, was this. As he entered 
the castle, amid the smoke and confusion, in which he saw some 
of the panic-stricken garrison destroying themselves, he cut off the 
heads of two enemies, and then, suddenly recollecting that this 
fifteenth day of the eighth month was the day sacred to Hachi- 
man, the god of war and Buddha of the Eight Banners, he flung 
down his bloody sword, put his red palms together, and bowing 
his head, prayed devoutly toward his adored Japan. His devo- 
tions ended, he sliced off the noses from the heads of the two 
enemies he had slain, wrapped them in paper, twisted the pack- 
age to his girdle, and sprang forward to meet, with but three men, 
the charge of fifty horsemen. The first sweep of the Japanese 
sabre severed the leg of the nearest rider, who fell to the earth on 
the other side of his horse, and Ogawachi's companions killing each 
his man, the enemy fled. The fires of the burning towers now 
lighted up the whole area of the castle, while the autumn moon 
rose red and clear. OgavTUchi slew, with his own hand, Keku- 
shiu, one of the Chinese commanders. His body, in rich armor, 
lined with gold brocade, was stripped, and the trappings secured 
as trophies to be sent home, while his head was presented for 
Konishi's inspection next morning. 

According to the barbarous custom of the victors, they severed 
the heads of the bodies not already decapitated in fight, untU the 
castle space resembled a great slaughter-yard. Collecting them 
into a great heap, they began the official count. The number of 
these ghastly trophies, or " glory-signs," was three thousand seven 
hundred and twenty-six. The ears and noses of the slain were 
then sheared off, and with the commander's head, were packed 
with salt and quick lime in casks, and sent to Japan to form the 
great ear-tomb now in Kioto, the horrible monument of a most 
unrighteous war. 

A map of the castle and town, with the list of the most meri- 
torious among the victors, was duly sent back to Taiko. Then 
the walls and towers, granaries, and barracks were destroyed. 
This work occupied two days. 

Promptly on September 80th the army moved on to Teru-shiu, 
the cavalry riding day and night, and reaching the castle only to 
find it deserted, the garrison having fled toward Seoul. The Jap- 



134 COREA. 

anese remained here ten days, levelling the fortress with fire and 
hammer. 

As the cold weather was approaching, the Japanese command- 
ers, after council, resolved at once to march to the capital. Kat- 
suyoshi and Kiy omasa had joined them, and the advance north- 
ward was at once began. By October 19th they were within 
seventeen miles of Seoul.* 

The successes on land, brilliant though they were, were bal- 
anced by the defeat of the Japanese navy off the southern coast. 
The Chinese admiral Rishinshin, in conjunction with the Coreans, 
won an important victory over Kuroda's naval forces a few days 
after the fall of Nan-on. In this instance, the Chinese ships were 
not only heavy enough to be formidable as rams, but were made 
more manageable by numerous rowers sitting in well-defended 
timber casements, apparently covered with metal. The warriors, 
too, seem to have been armed with larger lances. The Chinese 
commanders, having improved their tactics, so managed their ves- 
sels that the Japanese fleet was destroyed or driven away. 

This event may be said to have decided the fate of the cam- 
paign. Bereft of their fleet, which would, by going round the 
west coast, have afforded them a base of supplies, they were now 
obHged to advance into a country nearly empty of forage, and 
with no store of provisions. As in the opening of the war, so 
again, the loss of the fleet at a critical period made retreat neces- 
sary even at the moment of victory. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese general Keikai, thoroughly disliking 
the rigors of a camp in a Corean winter, and feeling deeply for his 
soldiers suffering from exposure in a desolate land, determined on 
closing the war as soon as possible. Erecting an altar, in presence 
of the army, he offered sacrifices to propitiate the spirits of Heaven 
and Earth, and prayed for victory against the invaders. Then, after 
seeing well to commissariat and equipment, he gave orders for a 
general movement of aU the allied forces, with the design of end- 
ing the war by a brief and decisive campaign. The Japanese gen- 
erals at Koran, by means of their spies and advance parties, kept 
themselves well informed of the movements of the enemy. At a 

' Their line of inarch, as shown in the Japanese histories, was to Sen-ken, 
October 11th ; to Kumu-san, where they experienced the first frost ; to Knmui, 
C ctober 12th ; to Chin-zon ; to Funki ; to Shaku-shiu ; to Koran ; to Chin-zen. 
These are names of places in Chulla and Chung-chong, expressed in the Ja 
panese and old Corean pronunciation. 



THE SECOND INVASION. 135 

skirmish at Cliin-zen the Chinese advance guard was defeated 
with hea-vy loss, but the Japanese at once began their retreat. 
Shishida and Ota, who were further east, learning of the over- 
whelming odds against them, fell back into Uru-san, which was 
already manned by a detachment of Kato's corps. 

While Kato and Katsuyoshi were at Chin-zen, a grand tiger 
hunt was proposed and carried out, in which a soldier was bitten 
in two places and died. The army agreed that tiger-hunting re- 
quired much nerve and valor. Besides the tiger steaks, which they 
ate, much fresh meat was furnished by the numerous crane, pheas- 
ants, and " the ten thousand things different from those in Japan," 
which they made use of to eke out their scanty rations. 

To remain in camp until the Han Eiver was frozen over, and 
could be crossed easily, or to press on at once, was the question 
now considered by the Japanese. While thus debating, word 
came that the Chinese armies had made junction at Seoul, and 
numbered one hundred thousand men. The Japanese " felt cold 
in their breasts " when they heard this. Far from their base of 
supplies, their fleet destroyed, and they at the threshold of winter 
in a famine-stricken land, they were forced, reluctantly, again to 
retreat into Kiung-sang. 

This turning their backs on Seoul was, in reality, the begin- 
ning of their march homeward. The invaders, therefore, enriched 
themselves with the spoil of houses and temples as they moved 
toward the coast — gold and silver brocades, roUs of silk, paint- 
ings, works of art, precious manuscripts, books written with gold 
letters on azure paper, inlaid weapons and armor, rich mantles, 
and whatever, in this long-settled and wealthy province, pleased 
their fancy. On the boundaries of roads and provinces they no- 
ticed large dressed stone columns of an octagonal form, with in- 
scriptions upon them. Their route lay from Chin-zen, which they 
left in ashes, on October 25th, to Chin-nan ; to Ho-won ; to Ho- 
kin ; to Karon ; reaching Kion-chiu, the old capital of Shinra, 
after some fighting along the way. 

The Japanese were impressed with the size and grandeur of 
the buildings in this old seat of the civilization and learning of 
Shinra and Korai. Here, in ancient days, was the focus of the 
arts, letters, religion, and science which, from the west, the far off 
mysterious land of India, and the nearer, yet august, empire of 
China, had been brought to Corea. Here, too, their own ancient 
mikados had sent embassies, and from this historic city had radia- 



136 COREA. 

ted the influences of civiKzation into Japan. As Buddhism had 
been the dominant faith of Shinra and Korai, this was the old 
sacred city of the peninsula, and among the historic edifices still 
standing and most admired were the halls and pagodas of the 
Eternal Buddha. Kion-chiu was to the Japanese very much what 
London is to an American, Geneva to a Protestant, or Dordrecht 
to a Hollander. Yet, in spite of all classic associations, the city 
was wantonly destroyed. On the morning of November 2d, be- 
ginning at the magnificent temples, the whole city was given to 
the torch. Three hundred thousand dwellings were burned, and 
the flames lighted up the long night with the glare of day. 

The next morning, turning their backs on the gray waste of 
ashes, they resumed their march. Kokio, Kunoi, Sin-ne were 
passed through. Skirmishing and the destruction of castles, and 
the burning of granaries, were the pastimes enjoyed between 
camps. On November 18th the army reached a river, where the 
Coreans made an unsuccessful night attack, repeating the same in 
the morning, while the Japanese were crossing the stream, with 
the same negative results. 

Thence through Yei-tan, they came to Keku-shiu, another 
famous old seat of Shinra' s ancient grandeur. The beautiful situa- 
tion and rich appearance of the city charmed the invaders, who 
Hngered long in the deserted streets before applying the torch. 
The " three hundred thousand houses of the people " were clus- 
tered around the great Buddhist temple in the centre. The clock- 
tower, eighteen stories high, was especially admired. The massive 
swinging beam by which the tongueless bells, or gongs, of the 
Far East are made to boom out the hours, struck against a huge 
bronze lotus eight or nine feet in diameter. This sacred flower 
of the Buddhist emblem of peace and calm in Nirvana had in 
Corean art taken the place of the suspended bell, being most 
probably a cup-shaped mass of metal set with mouth upright, or 
like a beU turned upside down — such being the form often seen 
in the temples of Chinese Asia. Again did antiquity, religion, or 
the promptings of mercy fail to restrain the invaders. Securing 
what spoils they cared for, everything else was burned up. 

After camping at Kiran, they reached the sea-coast, at XJru-san, 
November 18th. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 

The Japanese now took up tlie spade as their immediate wea- 
pon of defence against the infuriated Coreans and the avenging 
Chinese. A force of twenty-three thousand men was at once set 
to work, " without regard to wind or rain," along the lines marked 
out by the Japanese engineers. To furnish the wood for towers, 
gates, huts, and engines, a party of two thousand axemen and la- 
borers, guarded by twenty-eight mounted pickets and three hun- 
dred matchlock men, with seven flags, went daily into the forest. 

The winter huts were hastily erected, walls thrown up, ditches 
dug, towers built, and sentinels and watch stations set. The work 
went on from earliest daybreak till latest twilight, the carpenters 
so suffering from the cold that "their finger nails dropped off." 
By the first part of January the castle was almost completed. 
From the eleventh day the garrison took rest. 

The fortress was three-sided, the south face lying on the sea. 
The total line of works was about three and a haK miles, pierced 
by three gates. The inner defences were in three parts, or maru. 
The third maru, or enclosure, had stone walls, one tower and one 
gate ; the second had two towers, two gates ; and the first or 
chief citadel had stone walls, forty-eight feet high, with two towers 
and two gates. 

The war operations, which had hitherto covered large spaces 
of the country, now found the pivot at this place situated in Kiung- 
sang, on the sea-coast, thirty-five miles north of Fusan. Another 
commander, Asano, marched to assist the garrison and entered 
the castle before the Ming army arrived. His advance guard, while 
reconnoitring, was defeated by the Coreans, yet he succeeded, by 
an impetuous charge, in entering the castle. 

The Chinese, smarting under their losses at Chin-sen, and stung 
by the gibes of the Coreans, now hastened to Uru-san, to swallow 
up the Japanese. The Corean army, which had been collecting 



138 



COREA. 



around the Japanese camps, were soon joined by the advance 
guard of the Ming army. The arrival of the Chinese forces was 
made known in the following manner. 

A Japanese captain commanded one of the advance pickets, 



w 



M 

H 



i i 

San 


< 


S 


dm mm ( 


DBsi cm en 


pG 




1 ma 

i 






i 

1 






TS JE 



Plan of Uru-san Castle. — Explanation : Hon, First Enclosure ; Ni, Second ; San, Third ; G, Gates ; 
innu Bodies of Troops. 



which had their quarters in the cloisters of Ankokuji (Temple of 
the Peaceful Country). One night a board, inscribed with Chi- 
nese characters, was set up before the gate of the camp. The sol- 
diers, seeing it in the morning, but unable to read Chinese, car- 



THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 139 

ried it to their captain, who handed it to his priest-secretary. The 
board contained a warning that the Chinese were near and would 
soon attack Uru-san. Betraying no emotion and saying nothing, 
the captain soon after declared himself on the sick-list, and se- 
cretly absconded to Fusan. The truth was, that an overwhelm- 
ing Ming army was now in front of them and their purpose to in- 
vest the castle was thus published. The entire Japanese forces 
were, now gathered close under the walls, or inside the castle, and 
the sentinels were doubled. 

On the morning of January 30th the Ming army suddenly as- 
saulted the castle. A small detachment, evidently a decoy and 
forlorn hope, attempting to scale the walls, was driven back by the 
matchlock men and began to retreat. Seeing this, the Japanese 
recklessly opened the barbican gate and began pursuit of their 
enemies, thinking they were only Coreans. Lured on to a dis- 
tance, they suddenly found themselves encircled by a mighty host 
By their black and yellow standards, and their excellent tactics, 
the Japanese officers saw that they were Ming soldiers. The dust 
raised by the horses of the oncoming enemy seemed to the garri- 
son as high as Atago Mountain in Japan. They now knew that 
eighty thousand Chinese were before their gates. Only after hard 
fighting, was the remnant of the Japanese sortie enabled to get 
back within the castle, while the allies, surrounding the walls, 
fought as fiercely as if they intended to take it by immediate as- 
sault. Some of the bravest leaders of the garrison fell outside, 
but no sooner were the gates locked than Katsuyoshi, without ex- 
tracting the two arrows from his wounds, or stanching the blood, 
posted the defenders on the walls in position. Ogawuchi had per- 
formed the hazardous feat of sallying out and firing most of the 
outside camps. He re-entered the castle with arrows in his clothes, 
but received no wounds. The battle raged until night, when the 
Chinese drew off. 

The Japanese had suffered fearfully by the first combat beyond 
and on the walls. " There was none but had been shot at by five 
or ten or fifteen arrows." One of their captains reckoned their 
loss at eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty men, which 
left them but a garrison of five thousand fighting men. A large 
number of non-combatants, including many of the friendly people 
of the neighborhood, had crowded into the fortifications, and had 
to be fed. 

Food growing scarcer, and danger increasing, Asano sent word 



140 COREA. 

to Kato for help. On a fleet horse the messenger arrived, after a 
ride of two days. Kato had, in Japan, taken oath to Asano's 
father to help him in every strait. Immediately, with seventy 
picked companions, he put out to sea in seven boats, and, after 
hard rowing, succeeded in entering the castle. 

On January 31, 1598, the war-conch sounded in the Ming camp, 
as the signal of attack, and the ears of the besieged were soon 
deafened by the yells of the " eighty thousand " besiegers. The 
Japanese were at first terrified at the clouds of dust, through 
which the awful sight of ranks of men, twenty deep, were on all 
sides visible. The enemy, armed with shields shaped like a fowl's 
wings, upon which they received the missiles of the garrison, 
charged on the outer works, but when into and on the slope of the 
ditch, flung their shields away, and plied axe, knife, sword, and 
lance. Though seven attacks were repulsed, the wall was breached, 
the outer works were gained by overwhelming numbers, and the 
garrison was driven into the inner enclosure. 

Night fell upon the work of blood, but at early morn, the 
enemy waked the garrison with showers of arrows, and with lad- 
ders and hurdles of bamboo, tried to scale the walls. In four 
hours, seven attacks in force had been repulsed, yet the fighting 
went on. In spite of the intense cold, the soldiers perspired so 
that the sweat froze on their armor. Over their own heaps oi 
corpses the Chinese attempted to force one of the gates, while, 
from the walls of the inner citadel, and from the higher gate above 
them, the Japanese smote them. The next day the carnage ceased 
from the third to the ninth hour. On February 3d, the Chinese, 
with their ladders, were again repulsed. At night their sentineb 
" gathered hoar-frost on their helmets," while guarding the night 
long against the sortie, which they feared. Another attack from 
the clouds of enemies kept up the work of killing. Some of the 
Japanese warriors now noticed that their stockings and greave- 
bands kept slipping down, though adjusted repeatedly. The fact 
was their flesh had shrunk until their bones were nearly visible, 
and "their legs were as lean as bamboo sticks." Another warrior, 
taking off his helmet and vizor, was seen to have a face so thin 
and wizen that he reminded his comrades of one of those hungry 
demons of the nether Avorld, which they had seen so often depicted 
in temple pictures at home. 

On February 5th, the Ming generals, who had looked upon the 
reduction of Uru-san as a small affair to be settled by the way, and 



THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 141 

vexed at not having been able to take it by one assault, tried ne- 
gotiation. In fact, they were suffering from lack of provisions. 
The Japanese sent back a defiant answer, and some of them prof- 
ited by the lull in the fighting to make fires of broken arrows and 
lances, to strip the armor from the dead and frozen carcasses of 
their steeds, and enjoy a dinner of hot horse-meat. The vast num- 
ber of shafts that had fallen within the walls, were gathered into 
stacks, and those damaged were reserved for fuel. Outside the 
citadel, they lay under the wall in heaps many feet high. 

The next day, February 6th, was one of quiet, but it was in- 
tensely cold, and many of the worn out soldiers of the garrison 
died. Sitting under the sunny side of the towers for warmth, they 
were found in this position frozen to death. Yet amid all the suf- 
fering, the Japanese jested with each other, poured out mutual 
compliments, and kept light hearts and defiant spirits. 

A council of war had been held February 2d, at Fusan, and a 
messenger sent to encourage the garrison. By some means he was 
able to communicate with his beleaguered brethren. "With helmets 
off, the leaders Hstened to the words of cheer and praise, and 
promised to hold out yet longer. 

"While the lull or truce was in force, the Chinese were, accord- 
ing to Ogavnichi, plotting to entrap the Japanese leaders. This 
they learned from one Okomoto, a native of Japan, who had lived 
long in China, and was a division commander of eight thousand 
men in the Chinese army. He it was who first brought the offers 
of accommodation from the Ming side. The Chinese proposed to 
get the Japanese leaders to come out of their citadel, leave their 
horses and weapons at a certain place, and go to the altar to 
swear before Heaven to keep the peace. Then the Chinese were 
to surround and make prisoners of the Japanese. Okomoto' s soul 
recoiled at the perfidy. Going by night to the side of the castle 
near the hills, he was admitted in the citadel, and exposing the 
plot, gave warning of the danger. A profound impression was 
produced on the grateful leaders, who immediately made a plan to 
show their gratitude to Okomoto. They swore by all the gods to 
reward also his sons and daughters who were still living in Japan. 
When this fact was made known to him, he burst into tears and 
said he had never forgotten his wife or children ; though he saw 
them often in his dreams, yet " the winds brought him no news." 

On the following morning a Chinese officer, coming to the foot 
of the wall, made signs with his standard, and offered the same 



142 COREA. 

terms in detail which Okomoto had exposed. The Japanese lead- 
ers excused themselves on the plea of sickness, and the parley 
came to nothing. 

Yet the sufferings of the Japanese were growing hourly se- 
verer. To half rations and hunger had succeeded famine, and 
with famine came actual death from starvation. Unfortunately 
there was no well in the castle, so the Japanese had at first sallied 
out, under cover of the night, and carried water from the mountain 
brooks. The Chinese, discovering this, posted archers in front of 
every accessible stream, and thus cut off all approach by night or 
day. To hunger was^ added the torture of thirst. The soldiers 
who fought by day stole out at night and licked the wounds of 
their slain enemies and even secretly chewed the raw flesh sliced 
from the corpses of the Chinese. "Within the castle, ingenuity was 
taxed to the utmost to provide sustenance from the most unprom- 
ising substances. The famished soldiers chewed paper, trapped 
mice and ate them, killed horses and devoured every part of them. 
Braving the arrows of the Chinese pickets, they wandered at night 
wherever their dead enemies lay, and searched their clothes for 
stray grains of parched rice. On one occasion the Chinese, lying 
in wait, succeeded in capturing one hundred of the garrison, that 
were prowling like ghouls around the corpses of the slain. After 
this the commanders forbade any soldier, on pain of death, to 
leave the castle. Yet famine held revel within, and scores of 
starved and frozen multiplied into hundreds, until room for the 
corpses was needed. 

Tidings of the straits of the dwindling garrison at XJru-san hav- 
ing reached the other Japanese commanders, Nabeshima and Ku- 
roda, they marched to the relief of their compatriots. One of the 
Chinese generals, Eijobai, leaving camp, set out to attack them. 

The foiled Chinese commander-in-chief, angry at the refusal of 
the Japanese to come to his camp, ordered a fresh attack on the cas- 
tle. This time fresh detachments took the places of others when 
wearied. The day seemed shut out by the dust of horses, the smoke 
of guns, the clouds of arrows, and the masses of flags. Again the 
scaling ladders were brought, but made useless by the vigilant de- 
fenders in armor iced with frozen sweat, and chafing to the bone. 
Their constant labor made " three hours seem like three years." 
The attack was kept up unceasingly until February 12th, when 
the exhausted garrison noticed the Chinese retreating. The van 
of the reinforcements from Fusan had attacked the allies in the 



THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 143 

rear, and a bloody combat was raging. At about tbe same time 
the fleet, laden with provisions, was on its way and near the starv- 
ing garrison. 

Next morning the keen eyes of their commander noticed flocks 
of wild birds descending on the Chinese camp. The careful scru- 
tiny of the actions of wild fowl formed a part of the military edu- 
cation of an Japanese, and they inferred at once that the camp was 
empty and the birds, attracted by the refuse food, were feeding 
without fear. Orders were immediately given to a detachment to 
leave the castle and march in pursuit. Passing through the de- 
serted Ming camp, they came up with the forces of Kuroda and 
Nabeshima, who had gained a great victory over the allies. In 
this battle of the river plain of Gisen, February 9, 1598, the Jap- 
anese had eighteen thousand men engaged. Their victory was 
complete, thirteen thousand two hundred and thirty-eight heads 
of Coreans and Chinese being collected after the retreat of the 
allies. The noses and ears were, as usual, cut off and packed for 
shipment to Kioto. 

The sufferings of the valiant defenders were now over. Help 
had come at the eleventh hour. For fourteen days they had 
tasted neither rice nor water, except that melted from snow or ice. 
The abundant food from the relief ships was cautiously dealt out 
to the famished, lest sudden plenty should cause sudden death. 
The fleet men not only congratulated the garrison on their brave 
defence, but decorated the battered walls with innumerable flags 
and streamers, while they revictualed the magazines. On the ninth, 
the garrison went on the ships to go to Sezukai, another part of 
the coast, to recruit their shattered energies. With a feeling as if 
raised from the dead, the warriors took off their armor. The re- 
action of the fearful strain coming at once upon them, they found 
themselves lame and unable to stand or sit. Even in their dreams, 
they grappled with the Ming, and, laying their hand on their 
sword, fought again their battles in the land of dreams. For three 
years afterward they did not cease these night visions of war. 

According to orders given, the number of the dead lying on 
the frozen ground, within two or three furlongs of the castle, was 
counted, and found to be fifteen thousand seven hundred and 
fifty-four. Of the Japanese, who had starved or frozen to death, 
eight hundred and ninety-seven were reported. 

In the camp of the allies, crimination and recrimination were 
going on, the Coreans angry at being foiled before Uru-san, and the 



144 COREA. 

Chinese mortified that one fortress, with its garrison, could not 
have been taken. They made their plans to go back and try the siege 
anew, when the explosion of their powder magazine, which killed 
many of their men, changed their plans. For his failui'e the Chi- 
nese commander-in-chief was cashiered in disgrace. 

On May 10th the soldiers of the garrison, now relieved, left for 
their homes in Japan. 

Thus ended the siege of XJru-san, after lasting an entire year. 

After this nothing of much importance happened during the 
war. The invaders had suffered severely from the cold and the 
climate, and from hunger in the desolated land. Numerous skir- 
mishes were fought, and a continual guerilla war kept up, but, 
with the exception of another naval battle between the Japanese 
and Chinese, in which artillery was freely used, there was nothing 
to influence the fortunes of either side. In this state of inaction, 
Hideyoshi fell sick and died, September 9, 1598, at the age of 
sixty-three. Almost his last words were, " Becall all my troops 
fromCho-sen." The governors appointed by him to carry out his 
policy at once issued orders for the return of the army. The 
orders to embark for home were everywhere gladly heard in the 
Japanese camps by the soldiers whose sufferings were now to end. 
Before leaving, however, many of the Japanese improved every 
opportunity to have a farewell brush with their enemies. 

It is said, by a trustworthy writer, that 214,752 human bodies 
were decapitated to furnish the ghastly material for the " ear- 
tomb " mound in Kioto. Ogawuchi reckons the number of Co- 
rean heads gathered for mutilation at 185,738, and of Chinese 
at 29,014 ; aU of which were despoiled of ears or noses. It is 
probable that 50,000 Japanese, victims of wounds or disease, 
left their bones in Corea. 

Thus ended one of the most needless, unprovoked, cruel, and 
desolating wars that ever cursed Corea, and from which it has 
taken her over two centuries to recover. 



CHAPTER XX. 

CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 

The war over, and peace again in the land, the fugitives re- 
turned to their homes and the farmers to their fields. The whole 
country was desolate, the scars of war were everywhere visible, 
and the curse of poverty was universal. From the king and court, 
in the royal city, of which fire had left little but ashes, and of 
which war and famine had spared few inhabitants, to the peasant, 
who lived on berries and roots until his scanty seed rose above 
the ground and slowly ripened, all now suffered the woful want 
which the war had bred. Kind nature, however, ceased not her 
bountiful stores, and from the ever-ready and ever-full treasuries 
of the ocean, fed the stricken land. 

The war was a fruitful cause of national changes in Corean cus- 
toms and institutions. The first was the more thorough organiza- 
tion of the military, the rebuilding and strengthening of old cas- 
iles, and the erection of new ones ; though, like most measures of 
the government, the proposed reforms were never properly carried 
out. The coasts were guarded with fresh vigilance. Upon one 
of the Corean commanders, who had been many times successful 
against the Japanese, a new title and office was created, and the 
coast defence of the three southern provinces was committed to him. 
This title was subsequently conferred upon three officials whose 
headquarters were at points in Kiung-sang. Among the literary 
fruits of the leisure now afforded was the narrative, in Chinese, of 
the events leading to the war with the Japanese, written by a high 
dignitary of the court, and covering the period from about 1586 to 
1598. This is, perhaps, the only book reprinted in Japan, which gives 
the Corean side of the war. In his preface the excessively modest 
author states that he writes the book "because men ought to look 
at the present in the mirror of the past." The Chinese style of 
this writer is difficult for an ordinary Japanese to read. The book 
(Chohitsuroku) contains a curious map of the eight provinces. 
10 



146 CORE A. 

In Japan the energies of the returned warriors were fully em- 
ployed at home after their withdrawal from Corea. The adher- 
ents of Taiko and those of lyeyasu, the rising man, came to blows, 
and at the great battle of Sekigahara, in October, 1600, lyeyasu 
cinished his foes. Many of the heroes of the peninsular campaign 
fell on the field ; or, as beaten men, disembowelled themselves, 
according to the Japanese code of honor. 

Konishi, being a Christian, and unable, from conscientious 
scruples, to commit suicide by hara hiri, was decapitated. The 
humbled spirit and turbulent wrath of Satsuma were appeased, 
and given a valve of escape in the permission accorded them to 
make definite conquest of Riu Kiu. This was done by a well- 
planned and vigorously executed expedition in 1609, by which the 
little archipelago was made an integral part of the Japanese em- 
pire. When retiring from Cho-sen, in 1597, the daimio and gen- 
eral Nabeshima requited himself for the possible loss of further 
military glory, by bringing over and settling in Satsuma a colony 
of Corean potters. He builded better than he knew, for in found- 
ing these industries in his own domain, he became the prime 
author of that delight of the aesthetic world, "old Satsuma faience." 
Other daimios, in whose domains were potteries, likewise trans- 
ported skilled workers in clay, who afterward brought fame and 
money to their masters. On the other hand, lyeyasu sent back the 
Corean prisoners in Japan to their own homes. 

The spoil brought back from the peninsular campaign — wea- 
pons, flags, brocades, porcelains, carvings, pictures, and manu- 
scripts was duly deposited, with certifying documents, in temples 
and storehouses, or garnished the home of the veterans for the 
benefit of posterity. Some, with a literary turn, employed their 
leisure in writing out their notes and journals, several of which 
have survived the vnreck of time. Some, under an artistic impulse, 
had made valuable sketches of cities, scenery, battle-fields, and 
castles, which they now finished. A few of the victors shore off 
their queues and hair, and became monks. Others, with perhaps 
equal piety, hung up the arrow-pierced helmet, or corslet slashed 
by Chinese sabre, as ex-voto at the local shrines. The writer can 
bear personal witness to the interest which many of these authen- 
tic rehcs inspired in him while engaged in their study. In 1878, 
a large collection of various relics of the Corean war of 1592- 
1597 came into the possession of the mikado's government in 
Tokio, from the heirs or descendants of the veterans of Taiko. In 



CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 147 

Kioto, besides the Ear-monument, the Hall of the Founder, in one 
of the great Buddhist temples, rebuilt by the widow of Taikd, 
was ceiled with the choice wood of the war junk built for the 
hero. 

Though the peninsula was not open to trade or Christianity, it 
was not for lack of thought or attention on the part of merchant 
or missionary. 

In England, a project was formed to establish a trading-sta- 
tion in Japan, and, if there was a possibility, in Corea also, or, at 
least, to see what could be done in "the island" — as Corea then, 
and for a long time afterward, was believed to be. Through the 
Dutch, the Jesuits, and their countryman. Will Adams, in Japan, 
they had heard of the Japanese war, and of Corea. Captain Saris 
arrived off Hirado Island about the middle of June, 1613, with a 
cargo of pepper, broadcloth, gunpowder, and English goods. In 
a gaUey, carrying twenty-five oars and manned by sixty men fur- 
nished by the daimio. Saris and his company of seventeen Eng- 
lishmen set out to visit the lyeyasu at Yedo, by way of Suruga 
(now Shidzuoka). After two days' rowing along the coast, they 
stopped for dinner in the large and handsome city of Hakata (or 
Fukuoka), the city being, in reality, double. As the Englishmen 
walked about to see the sights, the boys, children, and worse sort 
of idle people would gather about them, crying out, " Core, Core, 
Cocore Ware " (Oh you Coreans, Coreans, you Kokorai men), taunt- 
ing them by these words as Coreans with false hearts, whooping, 
holloaing, and making such a noise that the English could hardly 
hear each other speak. In some places, the people threw stones 
at these "Corean " Englishmen. Hakata was one of the towns at 
which the embassy from Seoul stopped while on its way to Yedo, 
and the incident shows clearly that the Japanese urchins and 
common people had not forgotten the reputed perfidy of the Co- 
reans, while they also supposed that any foreigner, not a Portu- 
guese, with whom they were familiar, must be a Corean. In the 
same manner, at Nankin, for a long while aU foreigners, even 
Americans, were called "Japanese." 

Nothing was done by Saris, so far as is known, to explore or 
open Corea to Western commerce, although the last one of the eight 
clauses of the articles of license to trade, given him by lyeyasu, 
was, "And that further, without passport, they may and shall set 
out upon the discovery of Yeadzo (Yezo), or any other part in and 
about our empire" By the last clause any Japanese would un- 



148 COREA. 

derstand Corea and Kiu Kiu as being land belonging to, but out^ 
side of " civilized " Nippon. 

After leaving Nagasaki, and calling at Bantam, Saris took in a 
load of pepper, and sailed for England, reaching Plymouth Sep- 
tember 27, 1614. 

An attempt was also made by the Dominican order of friars to 
establish a mission in Corea. Vincent (Caun), the ward of Ko- 
nishi, who had been educated and sent over by the Jesuits to plant 
Christianity among his countrymen, reached Peking and there 
waited four years to accomplish his purposes, but could not, 
owing to the presence of the hostile Manchius in Liao Tung. But 
just as he was returning to Japan, in 1618, another attempt was 
made by the Dominican friars to penetrate the sealed land. Juan 
de Saint Dominique, a Castilian Spaniard, who had labored as a 
missionary in the Philippine Islands since 1601, was the chosen 
man. Having secured rapid mastery of the languages of the 
Malay archipelago, he was selected as one well fitted to acquire 
Corean. With two others of the same fraternity he embarked for 
the shores of Morning Calm. For some reason, not knovm, they 
could not land in Corea, and so passed over to Japan, where the 
next year, March 19th, having met persecution, Dominique died 
in prison. The ashes of his body, taken from the cremation fur- 
nace, were cast in the sea ; but his followers, having been able to 
save from the fire a hand and a foot, kept the ghastly remnants as 
holy relics. 

The exact relations of "the conquering and the vassal state," 
as the Japanese would say, that is, of Nihon and Cho-sen, were not 
definitely fixed, nor the menace of war withdrawn, until the last 
of the line of Taiko died, and the family became extinct by the 
death of Hideyori, the son of Taiko, in 1612. 

There is not a particle of evidence that the conquerors ever ex- 
acted an annual tribute of "thirty human hides," as stated by a 
recent French writer. While lyeyasu had his hands full in Japan, 
he paid little attention to the country which Taiko had usod as a 
cockpit for the Christians. lyeyasii dealt with the Jesuit, tlie 
Christian, and the foreigner, in a manner different from, and for 
obvious reasons with success greater than, that of Taiko. He uni- 
fied Japan, re-established the dual system of mikado and sho-gun, 
with two capitals and two centres of authority, Kioto and Yedo. 
He cleared the ground for his grandson lyemitsu, who at once 
summoned the Coreans to renew tributary relations and pay horn- 



CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 149 

age to Mm at Yedo. Magnifying his authority, he sent, in 1623, 
a letter to the King of Corea, in which he styles himself Tai-kun 
("Tycoon "), or Great Prince. This is the equivalent in Chinese 
Tjronunciation of the pure Japanese 0-gimi, an ancient title applied 
only to the mikado. No assumption or presumption of pomp and 
power was, however, scrupled at by the successors of lyeyasii. 

The title "Tycoon," too, was intended to overawe the Coreans, 
as being even higher than the title Koku (king of a [tributary] 
country), which their sovereign and the Ashikaga line of rulers 
held by patents from the Emperor of China, and which Taiko had 
scornfully refused. 

The court at Seoul responded to the call, and, in 1624, sent an 
embassy with congratulations and costly presents. The envoys 
landed in Hizen, and made their journey overland, taking the 
same route so often traversed by the Hollanders at Deshima, and 
described by Kaempf er, Thunberg, and others. A sketch by a Yedo 
artist has depicted the gorgeous scene in the castle of the " Ty- 
coon." Seated on silken cushions, on a raised dais, behind the 
bamboo curtains, with sword-bearer in his rear, in presence of his 
lords, an in imitation of the imperial throne room in Kioto, the 
haughty ruler received from the Corean envoy the symbol of vas- 
salage — a gohei or wand on which strips of white paper are hung. 
Then followed the official banquet. 

Since the invasion, Fusan, as before, had been held and garri- 
soned by the retainers of the daimi5 of Tsushima. At this port 
all the commerce between the two nations took place. The inter- 
change of commodities was established on an amicable basis. Jap- 
anese swords, military equipments, works of art, and raw prod- 
ucts were exchanged for Corean merchandise. Having felt the 
power of the eastern sword-blades, and unable to perfect their 
own clumsy iron hangers, either in temper, edge, or material, they 
gladly bought of the Japanese, keeping their sword-makers busy. 
Kaempfer, who was at Nagasaki from September 24, 1690, to 'Eo- 
vember, 1692, tells us that the Japanese imported from Fusan 
scarce medicinal plants, especially ginseng, walnuts, and fruits; 
the best pickled fish, and some few manufactures ; among which 
was "a certain sort of earthen pots made in Japij and Ninke, 
two Tartarian provinces." These ceramic oddities were "much 
esteemed by the Japanese, and bought very dear." 

From an American or British point of view, there was little 
trade done between the two countries, but on the strength of even 



150 COREA. 

this small amount, Earl Kussell, in 1862, tried to get Great Britain 
included as a co-trader between Japan and Corea. He was not suc- 
cessful. Provision was also made for those who might be cast, by 
the perils of the sea, upon the shore of either coimtry. At the ex- 
pense of the Yedo government a Chosen Yashiki (Corean House), 
was built at Nagasaki. From whatever part of the Japanese shores 
the waifs were picked up, they were sent to Nagasaki, fed and 
sheltered until a junk could be despatched to Fusan. These un- 
fortunates were mostly fishermen, who, in some cases, had their 
wives and children with them. It was from such that Siebold ob- 
tained the materials for his notes, vocabulary, and sketches in the 
Corean department of his great Archiv. 

The possession of Fusan by the Japanese was, until 1876, a 
perpetual witness of the humiliating defeat of the Coreans in the 
war of 1592-1597, and a constant irritation to their national pride. 
Their popular historians, passing over the facts of the case, substi- 
tute pleasing fiction to gratify the popular taste. The subjoined 
note of explanation, given by Dallet, attached to a map of Corea 
of home manufacture, thus accounts for the presence of the 
foreigners. The substance of the note is as follows : During the 
sixteenth century many of the barbarous inhabitants of Tsushima 
left that island, and, coming over to Corea, established themselves 
on the coast of Corea, in three little ports, called Fusan, Yum, and 
Ghisi, and rapidly increased in numbers. About five years after 
Chung-chong ascended the throne, the barbarians of Fusan and 
Yum made trouble. They destroyed the walls of the city of Fusan, 
and kiUed also the city governor, named Ni Utsa. Being subdued 
by the royal troops, they could no longer live in these ports, but 
were driven into the interior. A short time afterward, having 
asked pardon for their crimes, they obtained it and came and es- 
tablished themselves again at the ports. This was only for a short 
time, for a few years afterward, a little before the year 1592, they aU 
returned to their country, Tsushima. In the year 1599 the king, 
Syen-cho, held communication with the Tsushima barbarians. It 
happened that he invited them to the places which they had 
quitted on the coast of Corea, built houses for them, treated them 
with great kindness, established for their benefit a market during 
five days in each month, beginning on the third day of the month, 
and when they had a great quantity of merchandise on hand to 
dispose of he even permitted them to hold it still oftener. 

This is a good specimen of Corean varnish-work carried into 



CHANGES AFTER THE INVASIOK 151 

history. The rough facts are smoothed over by that well-applied 
native lacquer, which is said to resemble gold to the eye. The 
official gloss has been smeared over more modern events with 
equal success, and even defeat is turned into golden victory. 

Yet, with all the miseries inflicted upon her, the humble nation 
learned rich lessons and gained many an advantage even from her 
enemy. The embassies, which were yearly despatched to yield 
homage to their late invaders, were at the expense of the latter. 
The Japanese pride purchased, at a dear rate, the empty bubble 
of homage, by paying all the bills. We may even suspect that a 
grim joke was practised upon the victors by the vanquished. 
Year by year they swelled the pomp and numbers of their train 
until, finally, it reached the absurd number of four hundred per- 
sons. With imperturbable effrontery they devastated the treasurj^ 
of their "Tycoon." To receive an appointment on the embassy to 
Yedo was reckoned a rich sinecure. It enabled the possessor to 
enjoy an expensive picnic of three months, two of which were at 
the cost of the entertainers. Landing in Chikuzen, or Hizen, 
they slowly journeyed overland to Yedo, and, after their merry- 
making in the capital, leisurely made their jaunt back again. For 
nearly a century the Yedo government appeared to relish the sen- 
sation of having a crowd of people from across the sea come to 
pay homage and bear witness to the greatness of the Tokugawa 
family. In 1710 a special gateway was erected in the castle at 
Yedo to impress the embassy from Seoul, who were to arrive next 
year, with the serene glory of the sho-gun lyenobu. From a pa- 
vilion near by the embassy's quarters, the Tycoon himself was a 
spectator of the feats of archery, on horseback, in which the Co- 
reans excelled. The intolerable expense at last compelled the 
Yedo rulers to dispense with such costly vassalage, and to spoil 
what was, to their guests, a pleasant game. Ordering them to 
come only as far as Tsushima, they were entertained by the So 
family of daimios, who were allowed by the " Tycoon " a stipend 
in gold kobans for this purpose. 

A great social custom, that has become a national habit, was 
introduced by the Japanese when they brought over the tobacco 
plant and taught its properties, culture, and use. The copious 
testimony of aU visitors, and the rich vocabulary of terms relating 
to the culture, curing, and preparation of tobacco show that the 
crop that is yearly raised from the soil merely for purposes of 
waste in smoke is very large. In the personal equipment of every 



152 COREA. 

male Corean, and often in that of women and children, a tobacco 
pouch and materials for firing forms an indispensable part. The 
smoker does not feel " dressed " without his well-filled bag. Into the 
forms of hospitality, the requisites of threshold gossip and social 
enjoyment, and for all other purposes, real or imaginary, which 
nicotine can aid or abet, tobacco has entered not merely as a lux- 
ury or ornament, but as a necessity. 

Another great change for the better, in the improvement of the 
national garb, dates from the sixteenth century, and very probably 
from the Japanese invasion. This was the introduction of the cot- 
ton plant. Hitherto, silk for the very rich, and hemp and sea 
grass for the middle and poorer classes, had been the rule. In 
the north, furs were worn to a large extent, while plaited straw 
for various parts of the limbs served for clothing, as well as pro- 
tection against storm and rain. The vegetable fibres were bleached 
to give whiteness. Cotton now began to be generally cultivated 
and woven. 

It is true that authorities do not agree as to the date of the 
first use of this plant. DaUet reports that cotton was formerly 
imknown in Corea, but was grown in China, and that the Chinese, 
in order to preserve a market for their textile fabrics within the 
peninsula, rigorously guarded, with all possible precautions, against 
the exportation of a single one of the precious seeds. 

One of the members of the annual embassy to Peking, with 
great tact, succeeded in procuring a few grains of cotton seed, 
which he concealed in the quill of his hat feather. Thus, in a 
manner similar to the traditional account of the bringing of silk- 
worms' eggs inside a staff to Constantinople from China, the pre- 
cious shrub reached Corea about five hundred years ago. It is 
now cultivated successfully in the peninsula in latitude far above 
that of the cotton belt in America, and even in Manchuria, the 
most northern limit of its growth. 

It is evident that a country which contains cotton, crocodiles, 
and tigers, cannot have a very bleak cHmate. It seems more 
probable that though the first seeds may have been brought from 
China, the cultivation of this vegetable wool was not pursued upon 
a large scale until after the Japanese invasion. Our reasons for ques- 
tioning the accuracy of the date given in the common tradition is, 
that it is certain that cotton was not known in Northern China five 
hundred years ago. It was introduced into Central China from 
Turkestan in the fourteenth century, though known in the extreme 



CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 153 

south before that time. The Chinese pay divine honors to one 
Hwang Tao Po, the reputed instructress in the art oi spinning and 
weaving the "tree- wool." She is said to have come from Hainan 
Island. 

Though cotton was first brought to Japan by a Hindoo, in the 
year 799, yet the art of its culture seems to have been lost during 
the long civil wars of the middle ages. The fact that it had 
become extinct is shovTU in a verse of poetry composed by a court 
noble in 1248. " The cotton-seed, that was planted by the foreigner 
ftnd not by the natives, has died away." In another Japanese book, 
written about 1570, it is stated that cotton had again been intro- 
duced and planted in the southern provinces. 

The Portuguese, trading at Nagasaki, made cotton wool a fa- 
miliar object to the Japanese soldiers. While the army was in 
Oorea a European ship, driven far out of her course and much 
damaged by the storm, anchored off Yokohama. Being kindly 
treated while refitting, the captain, among other gifts to the 
daimio of the province, gave him a bag of cotton seeds, which 
were distributed. The yarn selling at a high price, the culture of 
the shrub spread rapidly through the provinces of Eastern and 
Northern Japan, being already common in the south provinces. 
Even if the culture of cotton was not introduced into Corea by 
the Japanese army, it is certain that it has been largely exported 
from Japan during the last two centuries. The increase of gen- 
eral comfort by this one article of wear and use can hardly be es- 
timated. Not only as wool and fibre, but in the oil from its seeds, 
the nation added largely to the sum of its blessings. 

Paper, from silk and hemp, rice stalk fibres, mulberry bark, 
and other such raw material, had long been made by the Chinese, 
but it is probable that the Coreans, first of the nations of Chinese 
Asia, made paper from cotton wool. For this manufacture they 
to-day are famed. Their paper is highly prized in Peking and 
Japan for its extreme thickness and toughness. It forms part of 
the annual tribute which the embassies carry to Peking. It is 
often thick enough to be split into several layers, and is much 
used by the tailors of the Chinese metropolis as a lining for the 
coats of mandarins and gentlemen. It also serves for the covering 
of window-frames, and a sewed wad of from ten to fifteen thick- 
nesses of it make a kind of armor which the troops wear. It wiU 
resist a musket-ball, but not a rifle-bullet. 



CHAPTER XXL 

THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 

The Shan-yan Alin, or Ever-White Moimtains, stand like a wall 
along the northern boundary of the Corean peninsula. Irregular 
mountain masses and outjutting ranges of hills form its buttresses, 
while, at intervals, lofty peaks rise as towers. These are all over- 
topped by the central spire Paik-tu, or Whitehead, which may be 
over ten thousand feet high. From its bases flow out the Yalu, 
Tumen, and Hurka Rivers. 

From primeval times the dwellers at the foot of this mountain, 
who saw its ever hoary head lost in the clouds, or glistening with 
fresh-fallen snow, conceived of a spirit dwelling on its heights in 
the form of a virgin in white. Her servants were animals in white 
fur and birds in white plumage. 

When Buddhism entered the peninsula, as in China and Japan, 
so, in Corea, it absorbed the local deities, and hailed them under 
new names, as previous incarnations of Buddha before his avatar 
in India, or the true advent of the precious faith through his mis- 
sionaries. They were thenceforth adopted into the Buddhist pan- 
theon, and numbered among the worshipped Buddhas. The spirit 
of the Ever- White Mountains, the virgin in ever-white robes, 
named Manchusri, whose home lay among the unmelting snows, 
was one of these. Perhaps it was from this deity that the Man- 
chius, the ancestors of the ruling dynasty of China, the wearers of 
the world-famous hair tails, took their name. 

According to Manchiu legend, as given by Professor Douglas, 
it is said that " in remote ages, three heaven-born virgins dwelt 
beneath the shadow of the Great White Mountains, and that, while 
they were bathing in a lake which reflected in its bosom the 
snowy clad peaks which towered above it, a magpie dropped 3 
blood red fruit on the clothes of the youngest. This the maiden 
instinctively devoured, and forthwith conceived and bore a son, 
whose name they called Ai-sin Ghioro, which being interpreted ia 



THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 



155 




Home of the Manchius, and Their Migrations. 



156 COREA. 

the ' Golden Family Stem,' and which is the family name of the em> 
perors of China. When his mother had entered the icy cave of 
the dead, her son embarked on a little boat, and floated down the 
river Hurka, until he reached a district occupied by three families 
who were at war with each other. The personal appearance of 
the supernatural youth so impressed these warlike chiefs that they 
forgot their enmities, and hailed him as their ruler. The town of 
0-to-le [Odoli] was chosen as his capital, and from that day his 
people waxed fat and kicked against their oppressors, the Chinese." 

The home of the Manchius was, as this legend shows, on the 
north side of the Ever- White Mountains, in the valley of the 
Hurka. From beyond these mountains was to roll upon China and 
Corea another avalanche of invasion. Beginning to be restless in the 
fourteenth century, they had, in the sixteenth, consolidated so many 
tribes, and were so strong in men and horses, that they openly de- 
fied the Chinese. The formidable expeditions of Li-yu-sun, previous 
to the Japanese invasion of Corea, kept them at bay for a time, but 
the immense expenditure of life and treasure required to fight the 
Japanese, drained the resources of the Ming emperors, while their 
attention being drawn away from the north, the Manchiu hordes 
massed their forces and grew daily in wealth, numbers, discipline, 
and courage. The invasion of Cho-sen by the Japanese veterans was 
one of the causes of the weakness and fall ol the Ming dynasty. 

To repress the rising power in the north, and to smother the 
life of the young nation, the Peking government resorted to bar- 
barous cruelties and stern coercion, in which bloodshed was con- 
tinual. Unable to protect the eastern border of Liao Tung, the entire 
population of three hundred thousand souls, dweUing in foui 
cities and many villages, were removed westward and resettled on 
new lands. Fortresses were planned, but not finished, in the de- 
serted land, to keep back the restless cavalry raiders from the north. 
Thus the foundation of the neutral strip of fifty miles was uncon- 
sciously laid, and ten thousand square miles of fair and fertile 
land, west of the Yalu, was abandoned to the wolf and tiger. 
What it soon became, it has remained until yesterday — a howling 
wilderness. (See map on page 155.) 

Unable to meet these cotton-armored raiders in the field, the 
Ming emperor ordered, and in 1615 consummated, the assassina- 
tion of their king. This exasperated all the Manchiu tribes to 
vengeance, and hostilities on a large scale at once began by a 
southwest movement into Liao Tung. 



THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 157 

China had now again to face an invasion greater than the Jap- 
anese, for this time a whole nation was behind it. Calling on 
her vassal, the Eastern Kingdom, to send an army of twenty thou- 
sand men, she ordered them to join the imperial army at Hing- 
king. This city, now called Yen-den, lies about seventy miles 
west of the Yalu River, near the 42d parallel, just beyond what was 
" the neutral strip," and inside the palisades erected later. In 
the battle, which ensued, the Coreans first faced the Manchius. 
The imperial legions were beaten, and the Coreans, seeing which 
way the victory would finally turn, deserted from the Chinese side 
to that of their enemy. This was in 1619. 

The Manchiu general sent back some of the runaway Coreans 
to their king, intimating that, though the Coreans were acting 
gratefully in assisting the Chinese, who had formerly helped the 
Coreans against the Japanese, yet it might hereafter be better to 
remain neutral. So far from taking any notice of this letter, the 
government at Seoul allowed the king's subjects to cross the Yalu 
and assist the people of Liao Tung against the Manchius, who 
were making Hing-king their capital. At the same time the Chi- 
nese commander was permitted to enter Corea, and thence to 
make expeditions against the Manchius, by which they inflicted 
great damage upon the enemy. This continued until the winter 
of 1827, when the Manchius, having lost all patience with Corea, 
prepared to invade the peninsula. Compelling two refugees to 
act as their guides, they crossed the frozen Yalu in four divisions, 
in February, and at once attacked the Chinese army, which was 
defeated, and retreated into Liao Tung. They then began the 
march to Seoul. Ai-chiu was the first town taken, and then, after 
crossing the Ching-chong River, followed in succession the cities 
lining the high road to Ping-an. Thence, over the Tatong River, 
they pressed on to Seoul, the Coreans everywhere flying before them. 
Thousands of dwellings and magazines of provisions were given to 
the flames, and their trail was one of blood and ashes. Among the 
slain were two Hollanders, who were captives in the country. 

Heretofore a line of strong palisades had separated Corea from 
Manchuria, on the north, but large portions of it were destroyed 
at this time in the constant forays along the border. Those parts 
which stood yet intact were often seen by travellers along the 
Manchurian side as late as toward the end of the last century. 
Since then this wooden wall, a pigmy imitation of China's colossal 
embargo in masonry, has gradually fallen into decay. 



158 COREA. 

The MancMus invested Seoul and began its siege in earnest. 
The queen and ladies of the court had already been sent to 
Kang-wa Island. The king, to avoid further shedding of blood, 
sent tribute offerings to the invaders, and concluded a treaty of 
peace by which Cho-sen again exchanged masters, the king not 
only acknowledging from the Manchiu sovereign the right of in- 
vestiture, but also direct authority over his person, that is, the 
relation of master and subject. 

The Coreans now waited to see whether events were likely to 
modify their new relations, so reluctantly entered into, for the Chi- 
nese were far from beaten as yet. "When free from the presence 
of the invading army the courage of the ministers rose, and by 
their advice the king, by gradual encroachments and neglect, an- 
nulled the treaty. 

No sooner were the Manchius able to spare their forces for the 
purpose, than, turning from China, they marched into Corea, one 
hundred thousand strong, well supplied with provisions and bag- 
gage-wagons. Entering the peninsula, both at Ai-chiu and by the 
northern pass, they reached Seoul, and, after severe fighting, en- 
tered it. Being now provided with cannon and boats, they took 
Kang-wa, into which all the royal, and many of the noble, ladies 
had fled for safety. 

The king now came to terms, and made a treaty in February, 
1637, in which he utterly renounced his allegiance to the Ming 
emperor, agreed to give his two sons as hostages, promised to 
send an annual embassy, with tribute, to the Manchiu court, and 
to establish a market at the Border Gate, in Liao Tung. These 
covenants were ratified by the solemn ceremonial of the king, his 
sons and his ministers confessing their crimes and making "kow- 
tow " (bowing nine times to the earth). Tartar and Corean wor- 
shipped together before Heaven, and the altar erected to Heaven's 
honor. A memorial stone, erected near this sacred place, com- 
memorates the clemency of the Manchiu conqueror. 

In obedience to the orders of their new masters, the Coreans 
despatched ships, loaded with grain, to feed the armies operating 
against Peking, and sent a small force beyond the Tumen to chas- 
tise a tribe that had rebelled against their conquerors. A picked 
body of their matchlock men was also admitted into the Manchiu 
service. 

After the evacuation of Corea, the victors marched into China, 
where bloody, civil war was already raging. The imperial army 



THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 159 

was badly beaten by the rebels headed by tlie usurper Li-tse- 
ching. The Manchius joined their forces with the Imperialists, 
and defeated the rebels, and then demanded the price of their 
victory. Entering Peking, they proclaimed the downfall of the 
house of Ming. The Tatar (vassal) was now a "Tartar." The 
son of their late king was set upon the dragon-throne and pro- 
claimed the Whang Ti, the Son of Heaven, and the Lord of the 
Middle Kingdom and all her vassals. The following tribute was 
fixed for Cho-sen to pay annually : 

100 ounces of gold, 1,000 ounces of silver, 10,000 bags of rice, 
2,000 pieces of silk, 300 pieces of linen, 10,000 pieces of cotton 
cloth, 400 pieces of hemp cloth, 100 pieces of fine hemp cloth, 
10,000 rolls (fifty sheets each) of large paper, 1,000 rolls small 
sized paper, 2,000 knives (good quality), 1,000 ox-horns, 40 de- 
corated mats, 200 pounds of dye-wood, 10 boxes of pepper, 100 
tiger skins, 100 deer skins, 400 beaver skins, 200 skins of blue 
(musk ?) rats. 

When, as it happened the very next year, the sho-gun of Japan 
demanded an increase of tribute to be paid in Yedo, the court of 
Seoul plead in excuse their wasted resources consequent upon the 
war with the Manchius, and their heavy burdens newly laid upon 
them. Their excuse was accepted. 

Twice, within a single generation, had the little peninsula been 
devastated by two mighty invasions that ate up the land. Between 
the mountaineers of the north, and " the brigands " from over the 
sea, Corea was left the Issachar among nations. The once strong 
ass couched down, between two burdens. " And he saw that the 
rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his 
shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute." 

The Manchius, being of different stock and blood from the 
Chinese, yet imposed their dress and method of wearing the hair 
upon the millions of Chinese people, but here their tyranny 
seemed to stop. Hitherto, the Chinese and Corean method of 
roUing the hair in a knot or baU, on the top of the head, had been 
the fashion for ages. As a sign of loyalty to the new rulers, all 
people in the Middle Kingdom were compelled to shave the fore- 
front of the head and allow their hair to grow in a queue, or pig- 
tail, behind on their back. At first they resisted, and much blood 
was shed before all submitted ; but, at length, the once odious 
mark of savagery and foreign conquest became the national fash- 
ion, and the Chinaman's pride at home and abroad. Even in 



160 COREA. 

foreign lands, they cling to this mark of their loyalty as to life 
and country. The object of the recent queue-cutting plots, fo- 
mented by the political, secret societies of China, is to insult the 
imperial family at Peking by robbing the Chinese of their loyal 
appendage, and the special sign of the Tartar dominion. 

As a special favor to the Coreans who first submitted to the 
new masters of Kathay, they were spared the infliction of the 
queue, and allowed to dress their hair in the ancient style. 

The Corean king hastened to send congratulations to the em- 
peror. Shun Chi, which ingratiated him still more in favor at 
Peking. In 1650 a captive Corean maid, taken prisoner in their 
first invasion, became sixth lady in rank in the imperial house- 
hold. Through her influence her father, the ambassador, obtained 
a considerable diminution of the annual tribute, fixed upon in the 
terms of capitulation in 1637. In 1643, one-third of this tribute 
had been remitted, so that, by this last reduction, in 1650, the tax 
upon Corean loyalty was indeed very slight. Indeed it has long 
been considered by the Peking government that the Coreans get 
about as much as they give, and the embassy is one of ceremony 
rather than of tribute-bringing. Their offering is rather a per- 
centage paid for license to trade, than a symbol of vassalage. 
Nevertheless, the Coreans of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies found out, to their cost, that any lack of due deference 
was an expensive item of freedom. Every jot and tittle, or tithe 
of the mint or anise of etiquette, was exacted by the proud Man- 
chius. In 1695, the king of Cho-sen was fined ten thousand ounces 
of silver for the omission of some punctilio of vassalage. At the 
investiture of each sovereign in Seoul, two grandees were sent 
from Peking to confer the patent of royalty. The little bill for 
this costly favor was about ten thousand taels, or dollars, in silver. 
The Coreans also erected, near one of the gates of Seoul, a temple, 
which still stands, in honor of the Manchius general commanding 
the invasion, and to whom, to this day, they pay semi-divine hon- 
ors. Yet to encourage patriotism it was permitted, by royal de- 
cree, to the descendants of the minister who refused, at the Yalu 
River, to allow the Manchius to cross, and who thereby lost hit 
life, to erect to his memory a monumental gate, a mark of high 
honor only rarely granted. 

The Jesuits at Peking succeeded in ingratiating themselves 
with the conquerors, and Shun-chi, the emperor, was a pupil of 
Adam Schall, a German Jesuit, who became President of the Board 



THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 



161 




11 



162 CORE A. 

of Mathematicians. Nevertheless, in the troubles preceding the 
peace, many upright men lost their lives, and hundreds of schol- 
ars who hated the Tatar conquerors of their beloved China — as 
the Christians of Constantinople hated the Turks — fled to Corea 
and Japan, conferring great literary influence and benefit. In 
both countries their presence greatly stimulated the critical study 
of Chinese literature. With the Mito and Yedo scholars in Japan, 
they assisted to promote the revival of learning, so long neglected 
during the civil wars. At Nagasaki, a Chinese colony of merchants, 
and trade between the two countries, were established, after the 
last hope of restoring the Mings had been extinguished in Koku- 
senya (Coxinga), who also drove the Dutch from Formosa. This 
exodus of scholars was somewhat like the dispersion of the Greek 
scholars through Europe after the fall of the Byzantine empire. 

To the Jesuits in Peking, who were mostly Frenchmen, belongs 
the credit of beginning that whole system of modern culture, by 
which modern science and Christianity are yet to transform the 
Chinese mind, and recast the ideas of this mighty people con- 
cerning nature and Deity. They now began to make known in 
Europe much valuable information about China and her outlying 
tributary states. They sent home a map of Corea — the first seen 
in Europe. Imperfect, though it was, it made the hermit land 
more than a mere name. In " China Ulustrata,'* written by the 
Jesuit Martini, and published in 1649, in Amsterdam — the city of 
printing presses and the Leipsic of that day — there is a map of 
Corea. The same industrious scholar wrote, in Latin, a book, en- 
titled " De BeUo inter Tartaros et Seniensis " (On the War between 
the Manchius and the Chinese), which was issued at Antwerp in 
1654, and in Amsterdam in 1661. It was also translated into 
English, French, and Spanish, the editions being issued at Lon- 
don, Donay, and Madrid. The English title is " Bellum Tartari- 
cum ; or, the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Empire 
of China by the Invasion of the [Manchiu] Tartars," London, 1654, 
octavo. 

The Dutch had long tried to get a hand in the trade of China, 
and, in 1604, 1622, and 1653, had sent fleets of trading vessels to 
Chinese ports, but were in every instance refused. The Russians, 
however, were first allowed to trade on the northern frontier of 
China before the same privileges were granted to other Europeans. 
The Cossacks, when they first crossed the Ural Mountains, in 1579, 
with their faces set toward the Pacific, never ceased their advance 



THE TSSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 163 

till they had added to the Czar's domain a portion of the earth's 
sui'face as large as the United States, and half of Europe. Once on 
the steppes, there began that long duel between Cossack and Tar- 
tar, which never ended until the boundaries of Russia touched 
those of Corea, Japan, and British America. Cossacks discovered, 
explored, conquered, and settled this triple-zoned region of frozen 
moss, forest land and fertile soil, bringing over six million square 
miles of territory under the wings of the double-headed eagle. 
They brought reports of Corea to Russia, and it was from Russian 
sources that Sir John Campbell obtained the substance of his 
"Commercial History of Chorea and Japan" in his voyages and 
travels, printed in London, 1771. 

In 1645, a party of Japanese traversed Cho-sen from Ai-chiu to 
Fusan, the Dan and Beersheba of the peninsula. Returning from 
their travels, one of them wrote a book called the " Romance of 
Corea" (Cho-sen Monogatari). Takeuchi Tosaemon and his son, 
Tozo, and shipmaster Kunida Hisosaemon, on April 26, 1645, left 
the port of Mikuni in the province of Echizen — the same place to. 
which the first native of Corea is said to have reached Japan in 
the legendary period. With three large junks, whose crews num- 
bered fifty-eight men, they set sail for the north on a trading voy- 
age. Off the island of Sado a fearful storm broke upon thern^ 
which, after fifteen days, drove them on the mountain coast of 
Tartary, where they landed. May 12th, to refit and get fresh water.. 
At first the people treated them peacefully, trading off their gin- 
seng for the sake, or rice-beer, of the Japanese. Later on^ the 
Japanese were attacked by the natives, and twenty-five of their- 
number slain. The remainder were taken to Peking, where they 
remained until the winter of 1646. Honorably acquitted of all 
blame, they were sent homeward, into the Eastern Kingdom, under 
safe conduct of the Chinese emperor Shun-chi. They began the 
journey December 18th, and, crossing the snow-covered mountains 
and frozen rivers of Liao Tung, reached Seoul, after twenty-eight 
days travel, February 3, 1647. 

The Japanese were entertained in magnificent style in one of the 
royal houses with banquets, numerous servants, presents, and the at- 
tendance of an officer, named Kan-shun, who took them around the 
city and showed them the sights. The paintings on the palace walls,. 
the tiger-skin rugs, the libraries of handsomely bound books, the 
festivities of New Year's day, the evergreen trees and fine scenery, 
were aJI novel and pleasing to the Japanese, but still they longed 



164 COREA. 

to reacli home. Leaving Seoul, February 12tli, they passed through 
a large city, where, at sunset and sunrise, they heard the trum- 
peters call the laborers to begin and cease work. They noticed 
that the official class inscribed on their waUs the names and dates 
of reign and death of the royal line from the founder of the 
dynasty to the father of the ruling sovereign. This served as an ob- 
ject lesson in history for the young. The merchants kept in their 
houses a picture of the famous Tao-jo-kung, who, by skiU in trade, 
accumulated fortunes only to spend them among his friends. On 
February 21st, they passed through Shang-shen (or Shang-chiu ?), 
where the Japanese gained a great victory. 

In passing along the Nak-tong River, they vdtnessed the an- 
nual trial of archery for the military examinations. The targets 
were straw mannikins, set up on boats, in the middle of the river. 
On March 6th they reached Fusan. The Japanese settlement, 
called Nippon-macM, or Japan Street, was outside the gates of 
the town, a guard-house being kept up to keep the Japanese 
away. Only twice a year, on August 15th and 16th, were they 
allowed to leave their quarters to visit a temple in the town. The 
Coreans, however, were free to enter the Japanese concession to 
visit or trade. The waifs were taken into the house of the daimio 
of Tsushima, and glad, indeed, were they to talk with a fellow 
countryman. Sailing to Tsushima, they were able there to get 
Japanese clothes, and, on July 19th, they reached Ozaka, and 
finally their homes in Echizen. One of their number wrote out 
an account of his adventures. 

Among other interesting facts, he states that he saw, hanging 
in the palace at Peking, a portrait of Yoshitsune, the Japanese 
hero, who, as some of his countrymen believe, fled the country 
and, landing in Manchuria, became the mighty warrior Genghis 
Khan. "Whether mistaken or not, the note of the Japanese is in- 
teresting. 

Mr. Leon Pages, in his " Histoire de la Religion Chretienne 
au Japon," says that these men referred to above found estab- 
lished in the capital a Japanese commercial factory, but with the 
very severe restrictions similar to those imposed upon the Hollan- 
ders at Deshima. This is evidently a mistake. There was no. trad- 
ing mart in the capital, but there was, and had been, one at 
Fusan, which still exists in most flourishing condition. 

The Manchius, from the first, showed themselves " the most 
improvable race in Asia." In 1707, under the patronage of the 



THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 



165 



renowned emperor Kang Hi, the Jesuits in Peking began their 
great geographical enterprise — the survey of the Chinese Empire, 
including the outlying vassal kingdoms. From the king's palace, 
at Seoul, Kang Hi's envoy obtained a map of Corea, which was re- 
duced, drawn, and sent to Europe to be engraved and printed. 
From this original, most of the maps and supposed Corean names 
in books, published since that time, have been copied. Having 
no Corean interpreter at hand, the Jesuit cartographers gave the 
Chinese sounds of the characters which represent the local names. 
Hence the discrepancies between this map and the reports of the 
Dutch, Japanese, French, and American travellers, who give the 




JoMakodctt 

300 jr. 



Map illustrating the Jesuit Survey of 1709. 

vernacular pronunciation. To French genius and labor, from first 
to last, we owe most of what is known in Europe concerning the 
secluded nation. The Jesuits' map is accurate as regards the lati- 
tude and longitude of many places, but lacking in true coast lines. 
While making their surveys, the party of missionaries, whose 
assignment of the work was to Eastern Manchuria, caught some- 
thing like a Pisgah glimpse of the country which, before a century 
elapsed, was to become a land of promise to French Christianity. In 
1709, as they looked across the Tumen Eiver, they wrote : "It was a 
new sight to us after we had crossed so many forests, and coasted 
so many frightful mountains to find ourselves on the banks of the 



166 COREA. 

river Tumen-ula, with notliiiig but woods and wild beasts on one 
side, while the other presented to our view all that art and labor 
could produce in the best cultivated kingdoms. We there saw 
walled cities, and placing our instruments on the neighboring 
heights, geometrically determined the location of four of them, 
which bounded Korea on the north." The four towns seen by 
the Jesuit surveyors were Kion-wen, On-son, and possibly Kion- 
fun and Chon-shon. 

The Coreans could not understand the Tartar or Chinese com- 
panions of the Frenchmen, but, at Hun-chun, they found interpre- 
ters, who told them the names of the Corean towns. The French 
priests were exceedingly eager and anxious to cross the river, and 
enter the land that seemed Hke the enchanted castle of Thornrose, 
but, being forbidden by the emperor's orders, they reluctantly 
turned their backs upon the smiling cities. 

This was the picture of the northern border in 1707, before it 
was desolated, as it afterward was, so that the Russians might not 
be tempted to cross over. At Hun-chun, on the Manchiu, and 
Kion-wen, on the Corean side of the river, once a year, alternately, 
that is, once in two years, at each place, a fair was held up to 
1860, where the Coreans and Chinese merchants exchanged goods. 
The lively traffic lasted only half a day, when the nationals of 
either country were ordered over the border, and laggards were 
hastened at the spear's point. Any foreigner, Manchiu, Chinese, 
or even Corean suspected of being an alien, was, if found on the 
south side of the Tumen, at once put to death without shrift or 
pity. Thus the only gate of parley with the outside world on Co- 
rea's northern frontier resembled an embrasure or a muzzle. 
When at last the Cossack lance flashed, and the Russian school- 
house rose, and the church spire glittered with steady radiance 
beyond the Tumen, this gateway became the terminus of that 
"underground railroad," through which the Corean slave reached 
his Canada beyond, or the Corean Christian sought freedom from 
torture and dungeons and death. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 

The old saw which teUs us that "truth is stranger than fits 
tion " receives many a new and unexpected confirmation wiien* 
ever a traveller into strange countries comes back to teU his tale. 
Marco Polo was denominated " Signor Milliano " (Lord MiUions) 
by his incredulous hearers, because, in speaking of China, he very 
properly used this lofty numeral so frequently in his narratives. 
Mendez Pinto, though speaking truthfully of Japan's wonders, 
was dubbed by a pun on his Christian name, the "Mendacious,'* 
because he told what were thought to be very unchristian stories. 
In our own day, when Paul Du ChaiUu came back from the 
African wilds and told of the gorilla which walked upright like a 
man, and could dent a gun-barrel with his teeth, most people be- 
heved, as a college professor of belles lettres, dropping elegant 
words for the nonce, once stated, that "he lied like the mischief." 
When lo ! the once mythic goriUas have come as live guests at 
Berlin and Philadelphia, while their skeletons are commonplaces 
in our museums. Even Stanley's African discoveries were, at first, 
discredited. 

The first European travellers in Corea, who lived to tell their 
tale at home, met the same fate as Polo, Pinto, Du Chaillu, and 
Stanley. The narratives were long doubted, and by some set down 
as pure fiction. Like the Indian braves that listen to Red Cloud 
and Spotted Tail, who, in the lodges of the plains, recount the 
wonders of Washington and civilization, the hearers are sure that 
they have taken "bad> medicine." Later reports or personal ex- 
perience, however, corroborate the first accounts, and by the very 
commonplaceness of simple truth the first reports are robbed alike 
of novelty and suspicion. 

The first known entrance of any number of Europeans into 
Corea was that of Hollanders, belonging to the crew of the Dutch 
ship HoUandra, which was driven ashore in 1627. In those days 



168 COREA. 

the Dutch were pushing their adventurous progress in the east« 
em seas as well as on the American waters. They had forts, 
trading settlements, or prosperous cities in Java, Sumatra, the 
Spice Islands, Formosa, and the ports of Southern Japan. The 
shores of these archipelagoes and continents being then little 
known, and shghtly surveyed, shipwrecks were very frequent. 
The profits of a prosperous voyage usually repaid all losses of 
ships, though it is estimated that three out of five were lost. The 
passage between China and Japan and up the seas south of Corea, 
has, from ancient times, been difficult, even to a Chinese proverb. 

A big, blue-eyed, red-bearded, robust Dutchman, named John 
"Wetterree, whose native town was Eip, in North Holland, volun- 
teered on board the Dutch ship HoUandra in 1626, in order to 
get to Japan- In that wonderful country, during the previous 
seventeen years, his fellow-countrymen had been trading and 
ihaking rich fortunes, occasionally fighting on the seas with the 
Portuguese and other buccaneers of the period. 

The good ship, after a long voyage around the Cape of Good 
Hope, and through the Indian and Chinese Seas, was almost in 
sight of Japan. Coasting along the Corean shores, Mr. John 
"Wetterree and some companions went ashore to get water, and 
there were captured by the natives. The Coreans were evidently 
quite willing to have such a man at hand, for use rather than orna- 
ment. After the Japanese invasions a spasm of enterprise in the 
way of fortification, architecture, and development of their mili- 
tary resources possessed them, and to have a big-nosed and red- 
bearded foreigner, a genuine "Nam-ban," or barbarian of the 
south, was a prize. To both Coreans and Japanese, the Europeans, 
as coming in ships from the southward, were called " Southern- 
ers," or "Southern savages." Later on, after learning new les- 
sons in geography, they called them "Westerners," or "Bar- 
barians from the West." 

Like the black potentates of Africa, who like to possess a white 
man, believing him to be a " spirit," or a New Zealand chief, who 
values the presence of a "paheka Maori" (Englishman), the Co- 
reans of that day considered their western " devil " a piece of prop- 
erty worth many tiger skins. It may be remembered — and the 
Coreans may have borrowed the idea thence — that the Japanese, 
then beginning their hermit policy, had also a white foreigner in 
durance for their benefit. This was the Englishman Will Adams, 
who had been a pilot on a Dutch ship that sailed from the same 



THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 169 

Texel Kiver. Perhaps the boy Wetterree had seen and talked 
with the doughty Briton on the wharves of the Dutch port. 
Adams served the Japanese as interpreter, state adviser, ship ar- 
chitect, mathematician, and in various useful ways, but was never 
allowed to leave Japan. It is highly probable that the ambassadors 
from Seoul, while in Yedo, saw WiU Adams, since he spent much 
of his time in public among the officials and people, living there 
until May, 1620. 

The magnates of Seoul probably desired to have a like facto- 
tum, and this explains why Wetterree was treated with kindness 
and comparative honor, though kept as a prisoner. When the 
Manchius invaded Corea, in 1635, his two companions were killed 
in the wars, and Wetterree was left alone. Having no one with 
whom he could converse, he had almost forgotten his native 
speech, when after twenty-seven years of exile, in the fifty-ninth 
year of his age, he met some of his fellow-HoUanders and acted as 
interpreter to the Coreans, under the following circumstances : 

In January, 1653, the Dutch ship Sparwehr (Sparrowhawk) 
left Texel Island, bound for Nagasaki. Among the crew was 
Hendrik Hamel, the supercargo, who afterward became the his- 
torian of their adventures. After nearly five months' voyage, they 
reached Batavia, June 1st, and Formosa July 16th. From this 
island they steered for Japan, fortunately meeting no " wild Chi- 
nese " or pirates on their course. Off Quelpart Island, a dreadful 
storm arose, and, being close on a lee shore with death staring 
all in the face, the captain ordered them " to cut down the mast 
and go to their prayers." The ship went to pieces, but thirty-six 
out of the sixty-four men composing the crew reached the shore 
alive. The local magistrate, an elder of some seventy years of age, 
who knew a little Dutch, met them with his retainers, and learned 
their plight, who they were, and whence they came. The Hollanders 
were first refreshed with rice-water. The Coreans then collected 
the pieces of the broken ship, and aU they could get from the 
hulk, and burned them for the sake of the metal. One of the iron 
articles happened to be a loaded cannon, which went off during 
the firing. The liquor casks were speedily emptied into the g-ullets 
of the wreckers, and the result was a very noisy set of heathen. 

The old leader, however, evidently determined to draw the line 
between virtue and vice somewhere. He had several of the thieves 
seized and spanked on the spot, while others were bambooed on 
the soles of their feet, one so severely that his toes dropped off. 



170 COREA. 

On October 29tli the survivors were brought by the officials 
to be examined by the interpreter Wetterree. The huge noses, 
the red beards and white faces were at once recognized by the 
lone exile as belonging to his own countrymen. Wetterree was 
very "rusty" in his native language, after twenty-seven years' 
nearly complete disuse, but in company with the new arrivals he 
regained it all in a month. 

Of course, the first and last idea of the captives was how to 
escape. The native fishing-smacks were frequently driven off to 
Japan, which they knew must be almost in sight. One night they 
made an attempt to reach the sea-shore. They at first thought 
ihey were secure, when the dogs betrayed them by barking and 
alarming the guards. 

It is evident that the European body has an odor entirely dis- 
tinct from a Mongolian. The Abbe Hue states that even when 
travelling through Thibet and China, in disguise, the dogs con- 
tinually barked at him and almost betrayed him, even at night. In 
travelling, and especially when living in the Japanese city of Fu- 
kui, the writer had the same experience. In walking through the 
city streets at night, even when many hundred yards off, the Jap- 
anese dogs would start up barking and run toward him. This 
occurred repeatedly, when scores of native pedestrians were not 
noticed by the beasts. The French missionaries in Corea, even in 
disguise, report the same facts. 

The baffled Hollanders were caught and officially punished 
after the fashion of the nursery, but so severely that some had to 
keep their beds for a month, in order to heal their battered flanks. 
Finally they were ordered to proceed to the capital, which the 
Dutchmen call Sior (Seoul). 

Hamel gives a few names of the places through which he 
passed. These are in the pronunciation of the local dialect, and 
written down in Dutch spelling. Most of them are recognizable 
on the map, though the real sound is nearly lost in a quagmire of 
Dutch letters, in which Hamel has attempted to note the quavers 
and semi-demi-quavers of Corean enunciation. He writes Goeree 
for Corea, and Tyocen-hoeck for Cho-sen kokii, and is probably the 
first European to mention Quelpart Island, on which the ship was 
wrecked. 

The first city on the mainland to which they came was Heynam 
(Hai-nam), in the extreme southwest of ChuUa. This was about the 
last of May, Thence they marched to Jeham, spending the night 



THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 171 

at Na-diou (Nai-chiu). The gunner of tliG sHp died at Je-ham, or 
Je-ban. They passed through San-siang (Chan-shon), and came 
to Tong-ap (Chon-wup ?), after crossing a high mountain, on the 
top of which was the spacious fortress of Il-pam San-siang. The 
term " San-siang," used twice here, means a fortified stronghold 
in the mountains, to which, in time of war, the neighboring villa- 
gers may fly for refuge. Teyn (Tai-in), was the next place arrived 
at, after which, "having baited at the Httle town of Kuniga" 
(Kumku), they reached Khin-tyo (Chon-chiu), where the governor 
of Chillado (Chulla do) resided. This city, though a hundred miles 
from the sea, was very famous, and was a seat of great traffic. 
After this, they came to the last town of the province, Jesan, and, 
passing through Gunun and Jensan, reached Konsio (Kong-chiu), 
the capital of Chung-chong province. They reached the border of 
Kiung-kei by a rapid march, and, after crossing a wide river (the 
Han), they traversed a league, and entered Sior (Seoul). They 
computed the length of the journey at seventy-five leagues. This, 
by a rough reckoning, is about the distance from Hainam to Seoul, 
as may be seen from the map. 

In the capital, as they had been along the road, the Dutchmen 
were like wild beasts on show. Crowds flocked to see the white- 
faced and red-bearded foreigners. They must have appeared to 
the natives as Punch looks to English children. The women were 
even more anxious than the men to get a good look. Every one 
was especially curious to see the Dutchmen drink, for it was gen- 
erally beUeved that they tucked their noses up over their ears 
when they drank. The size and prominence of the nasal organ of 
a Caucasian first strikes a Turanian with awe and fear. Thou- 
sands of people no doubt learned, for the first time, that the west- 
ern "devils" were men after all, and ate decent food and not 
earthworms and toads. Some of the women, so Hamel flattered 
himself, even went so far as to admire the fair complexions and 
ruddy cheeks of the Dutchmen. At the palace, the king (Yo- 
chong, who reigned from 1648 to 1658) improved the opportunity 
for a little fun. It was too good a show not to see how the ani- 
mals could perform. The Dutchmen laughed, sang, danced, leaped, 
and went through miscellaneous performances for His Majesty's 
benefit. For this they were rewarded with choice drink and 
refreshments. They were then assigned to the body-guard of 
the king as petty officers, and an allowance of rice was set apart 
for their maintenance. Chinese and Dutchmen drilled and com- 



172 COREA. 

manded the palace troops, who were evidently the flower of the 
army. During their residence at the capital the Hollanders 
learned many things about the country and people, and began to 
be able to talk in the " Coresian " language. 

The ignorance and narrowness of the Coreans were almost in- 
credible. They could not believe what the captives told them of 
the size of the earth. "How could it be possible," said they, in 
sneering incredulity, "that the sun can shine on all the many 
countries you tell us of at once?" Thinking the foreigners told 
exaggerated lies, they fancied that the " countries " were only 
counties and the " cities " villages. To them Corea was very near 
the centre of the earth, which was China. 

The cold was very severe. In November the river was frozen 
over, and three hundred loaded horses passed over it on the ice. 

After they had been in Seoul three years, the "Tartar" (Man- 
chiu) ambassador visited Seoul, but before his arrival the captives 
were sent away to a fort, distant six or seven leagues, to be kept 
until the ambassador left, which he did in March. This fort stood 
on a mountain, called Numma, which required three hours to 
ascend. In time of war the king sought shelter within it, and it 
was kept provisioned for three years. Hamel does not state why 
he and his companions were sent away, but it was probably to con- 
ceal the fact that foreigners were drilling the royal troops. The 
suspicions of the new rulers at Peking were easily roused. 

When the Manchiu envoy was about to leave Seoul, some of 
the prisoners determined to put in execution a plan of escape. 
They put on Dutch clothes, under their Corean dress, and awaited 
their opportunity. As the envoy was on the road about to depart, 
some of them seized the bridle of his horse, and displaying their 
Dutch clothing, begged him to take them to Peking. The plan 
ended in failure. The Dutchmen were seized and thrown into 
prison. Nothing more was ever heard of them, and it was believed 
by their companions that they had been put to death. This was 
in March. 

In June there was another shipwreck off Quelpart Island, and 
Wetterree being now too old to make the journey, three of the 
Hollanders were sent to act as interpreters. Hamel does not give 
us the result of their mission. 

The Manchiu ambassador came again to Seoul in August. 
The nobles urged the king to put the Hollanders to death, and 
have no more trouble with them. His Majesty refused, but sent 



THE dutchme:n- in exile. 173 

them back into Chulla, allowing them each fifty pounds of rice a 
month for their support. 

They set out from Seoul in March, 1657, on horseback, passing 
through the same towns as on their former journey. Reaching 
the castle-city of "Diu-siong," they were joined by their three 
comrades sent to investigate the wreck at Quelpart, which made 
their number thirty-three. Their chief occupation was that of 
keeping the castle and official residence in order — an easy and 
congenial duty for the neat and order-loving Dutchmen. 

Hamel learned many of the ideas of the natives. They repre- 
sented their country as in the form of a long square, " in shape like 
a playing-card " — perhaps the Dutchmen had a pack with them to 
beguile the tedium of their exile. Certain it is that they still kept 
the arms and flag of Orange, to be used again. 

The exiles were not treated harshly, though in one case, after 
a change of masters, the new magistrate " afflicted them with 
fresh crosses." This "rotation in office " was evidently on account 
of the change on the throne. Yo-chong ceased to reign in 1658, 
and " a new king arose who knew not Joseph." Yen-chong suc- 
ceeded his father, reigning from 1658 to 1676. 

Two large comets appearing in the sky with their tails toward 
each other, frightened the Coreans, and created intense alarm. 
The army was ordered out, the guards were doubled, and no fires 
were allowed to 'be kindled along the coast, lest they might attract 
or guide invaders or a hostile force. In the last few decades, 
comets had appeared, said the Coreans, and in each case they had 
presaged war. In the first, the Japanese invasions from the east, 
and, in the second, the Manchius from the west. They anxiously 
asked the Dutchmen how comets were regarded in Holland, and 
probably received some new ideas in astronomy. No war, how- 
ever, followed, and the innocent comets gradually shrivelled up 
out of sight, without shaking out of their fiery hair either pesti- 
lence or war. 

The Dutchmen saw many whales blowing off the coast, and in 
December shoals of herring rushed by, keeping up an increasing 
stream of life until January, when it slackened, and in March 
ceased. The whales made sad havoc in these shoals, gorging 
themselves on the smaU fry. These are the herring which arrive 
off the coast of Whang-hai, and feed on the banks and shoals dur- 
ing the season. The catching of them affords lucrative employ- 
ment to hundreds of junks from North China. 



174 COREA. 

From their observations, the Dutchmen argued — one hundred 
and twenty years before La Perouse demonstrated the fact — that 
there must be a strait north of Corea, connecting with the Arctic 
Ocean, Hke that of Waigats (now called the Strait of Kara), be- 
tween Nova Zemla and the island lying off the northwestern end 
of Russia. They thus conjectured the existence of the Straits of 
Tartary, west of Saghahn, before they appeared on any European 
map. Waigats was discovered by the Englishman, Stephen Bur- 
roughs, who had been sent out by the Muscovy company to find a 
northwest passage to China. Their mention of it shows that they 
were familiar with the progress of polar research, since it was dis- 
covered in 1556, only seven years before they left Holland. ' It 
had even at that time, however, become a famous hunting-place 
for whalers and herring fishers. 

These marine studies of the captives, coupled with the fact that 
they had before attempted to escape, may have aroused the suspi- 
cions of the government. In February, 1663, by orders from Seoul, 
they were separated and put in three different towns. Twelve 
went to " Saysiano," five to Siun-schien, and five to Namman, their 
numbers being now reduced to twenty-two. Two of these places 
are easily found on the Japanese map. During all the years of 
their captivity, they seem not to have known anything of the Jap- 
anese at Fusan, nor the latter of them. 

Though thus scattered, the men were occasionally allowed to 
visit each other, which they did, enjoying each other's society, 
sweetened with pipes and tobacco, and Hamel devoutly adds that 
" it was a great mercy of God that they enjoyed good health." A 
new governor having been appointed over them, evidently was pos- 
sessed with the idea of testing the skill of the bearded foreigners, 
with a view of improving the art productions of the country. He 
set the Dutchmen to work at moulding clay — perhaps to have some 
pottery and tiles after Dutch patterns, and the Delft system of 
illustrating the Bible at the fireplace. This was so manifestly 
against the national policy of making no improvements on any- 
thing, that the poor governor lost his place and suffered punish- 
ment. The spies informed on him to the king. An explosion of 
power took place, the ex-governor received ninety strokes on his 
shin-bones, and was disgraced from rank and office. The quon- 
dam improvers of the ceramic art of Corea were again set to work 
at pulling up grass and other menial duties about the official resi- 
dence. 



THE DUTCHMEN IN EXHiE. 175 

As the years passed on, the poor exiles were in pitifiil straits. 
Their clothing had been worn to tatters, and they were reduced 
even to beggary. They were accustomed to go off in companies 
to seek alms of the people, for two or three weeks at a time. 
Those left at home, during these trips, worked at various odd jobg 
to earn a pittance, especially at making arrows. The next year, 
1664, was somewhat easier for them, their overseer being kind 
and gentle ; but, in 1665, the homesick fellows tried hard to 
escape. In 1666, they lost their benefactor, the good governor. 
Now came the time for flight. 

AH possible preparations were made, in the way of hoarding 
provisions, getting fresh water ready, and studying well the place 
of exit. They waited for the sickness or absence of their overseer, 
to slacken the vigilance of their guards. 

In the latter part of August, or early in September, 1667, as the 
fourteenth year of their captivity was drawing to a close, the gov- 
ernor fell sick. The Dutchmen, taking time by the forelock, im- 
mediately, as soon as dark, on the night of September 4th, climbed 
the city wall, and reaching the seaside succeeded, after some par- 
leying, in getting a boat. "A Corean, blinded by the offer of 
double the value of it," sold them his fishing craft. They returned 
again to the city. At night they crept along the city wall, and 
this time the dogs were asleep, absent, or to windward, though 
the Dutchmen's hearts were in their mouths all the time. They 
carried pots of rice and water, and that darling of a Dutchman — 
the frying-pan. Noiselessly they slipped the wood and stone 
anchor, and glided out past the junks and boats in the harbor, 
none of the crews waking from their mats. 

They steered directly southeast, and on the 6th found them- 
selves in a current off* the Goto Islands. They succeeded in land- 
ing, and cooked some food. Not long after, some armed natives 
(probably from the lingering influence of the comet) approached 
them cautiously, as the Japanese feared they were Coreans, and 
forerunners of an invading band. 

Hamel at once puUed out their flag, having the arms and colors 
of the Prince of Orange. Surrendering themselves, they stated their 
history, and condition, and their desire of getting home. The 
Japanese were kind, " but made no return for the gifts " of the 
Dutchmen. They finally got to Nagasaki in Japanese junks, and 
met their countrymen at D6shima. The annual ship from Batavia 
was then just about to return, and in the nick of time the waifs 



176 COREA. 

got on board, readied Batavia November 20th, sailed for Holland 
December 28tli, and on July 20, 1668, stepped ashore at home. 

Hamel, the supercargo of the ship, wrote a book on his return, 
recounting his adventures in a simple and straightforward style. 
It was written in Dutch and shortly after translated into French, 
German, and English. Four editions in Dutch are known. The 
English version may be found in full in the Astley, and in the 
Pinkerton, Collections of Voyages and Travels. 

The French translator indulges in skepticism concerning 
Hamel' s narrative, questioning especially his geographical state- 
ments. Before a map of Corea, with the native sounds even but 
approximated, it will be seen that Hamel' s story is a piece ot 
downright unembroidered truth. It is indeed to be regretted that 
this actual observer of Corean life, people, and customs gave us so 
little information concerning them. 

The fate of the other survivors of the Sparrowhawk crew was 
never known. Perhaps it never will be learned, as it is not likely 
that the Coreans would take any pains to mark the site of their 
graves. Yet as the tomb of Will Adams was found in Japan, by a 
reader of Hildreth's book, so perhaps some inquiring foreigner in 
Corea may discover the site of the graves of these exiles, and mark 
their resting-places. 

There is no improbability in supposing that other missing 
vessels, previous to the second half of the nineteenth century, 
shared the fate of the Sparrowhawk. The wrecks, burned for the 
sake of the iron, would leave no trace ; while perhaps many ship- 
wrecked men have pined in captivity, and dying lonely in a 
strange land have been put in unmarked graves. 

At this point, we bring to an end our sketch of the ancient 
and mediaeval history of Corea. Until the introduction of Chris- 
tianity into the peninsula, the hermit nation was uninfluenced by 
any ideas which the best modern life claims as its own. As with 
the whole world, so vdth its tiny fraction Corea, the door of ancient 
history shut, and the gate of modern history opened, when the 
religion of Jesus moved the hearts and minds of men. We now 
glance at the geography, politics, social life, and religion of the 
Coreans ; after which we shall narrate the story of their national 
life from the implanting of Christianity until their rivulet of his^ 
tory flowed into the stream of the world's history. 



IL 

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL 
COREA 



POLITICAL AlfD SOCIAL COEEA. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 

PING-AN, OR THE PACIFIC. 

Tms province bears the not altogether appropriate name of 
Peaceful Quiet. It is the border land of the kingdom, containing 
what was for centuries the only acknowledged gate of entrance 
and outlet to the one neighbor which Corea willingly acknowl- 
edged as her superior. It contains, probably, the largest area of 
any province, unless it be Ham-kiung. Its northern, and a great 
part of its western, frontier is made by the Yalu River, called also 
the Ap-nok, the former name referring to its sinuous course, mean- 
ing "dragon's windings," and the latter after its deep green color. 

The Yalu is the longest river in Corea. Its source is found 
near the 40th parallel. Flowing northwardly, for about eighty 
miles, the stream forms the boundary between Ping-an and Ham- 
kiung. Then, turning to the westward, it receives on the Manchu- 
rian side twelve tributaries, which run down the gorges of the 
Ever-White Mountains. Each of these streams is named, begin- 
ning westwardly, after the numerals of arithmetic. The waters of 
so many vaUeys on the west, as weU as on the north and east, 
emptying into the Yalu, make it, in spring and fall, a turbulent 
stream, which sinuates like the writhing of a dragon ; whence its 
name. In the summer, its waters are beautifully clear, and blue 
or green— the Coreans having no word to distinguish between 
these two colors. It empties by three mouths into the YeUow 
Sea, its deltas, or islands, being completely submerged during the 
melting of the snows. It is easily navigable for junks to the town 
of Chan-son, a noted trading place, sixty miles from the sea. The 



180 COREA. 

valley of the Yalu is extremely fertile, and well wooded, and the 
scenery is superb. Its navigation was long interdicted to the Chi- 
nese, but steamers and gunboats have entered it, and access to the 
fertile valley and the trade of the region will be gained by other 
nations. The Tong-kia Biver drains the neutral strip. 

The town nearest the frontier, and the gateway of the king- 
dom, is Ai-chiu. It is situated on a hill overlooking the river, and 
surrounded by a wall of light-colored stone. The annual embassy 
always departed for its overland journey to China through its 
gates. Here also are the custom-house and vigilant guards, whose 
chief business it was to scrutinize all persons entering or leaving 
Corea by the high road, which traverses the town. A line of pa- 
trols and guard-houses picketed the river along a length of over a 
hundred miles. 

Nevertheless, most of the French missionaries have entered 
the mysterious peninsula through this loophole, disguising them- 
selves as wood-cutters, crossing the Yalu River on the ice, creeping 
through the water-drains in the granite waU, and passing through 
this town. Or they have been met by friends at appointed places 
along the border, and thence have travelled to the capital. 

Through this exit also, Corea sent to Peking or Mukden the 
waifs and sailors cast on her shores. A number of shipwrecked 
Americans, after kind treatment at the hands of the Coreans, have 
thus reached their homes by way of Mukden. This prosperous city, 
having a population of over two hundred thousand souls, and 
noted for its manufactures, especially in metal, is the capital of 
the Chinese province of Shing-king, formerly Liao Tong. It is 
surrounded by a long wall pierced with eight gates, one of which 
- — that to the northeast — is called "the Corean Gate." Niu- 
chwang has also a "Corean Gate." 

Fifty miles beyond the Corean frontier is the "Border Gate" 
(Pien-mun), at which there was a fair held three or four times a 
year, the chief markets being at the exit and return of the Corean 
embassy to China. The value of the products here sold annually 
averaged over five hundred thousand dollars. In the central apart- 
ment of a building inhabited at either end by Chinese and Corean 
mandarins respectively, the customs-officers sat to collect taxes on 
the things bartered. The Corean merchants were obliged to pay 
" bonus " or tribute of about four hundred doUars to the manda- 
rin of Fung-wang Chang, the nearest Chinese town, who came in 
person to open the gates of the building for the spring fair. For 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 



181 



the privilege of the two autumn fairs, the Coreans were mulcted 
but half the sum, as the gates were then opened by an underling 



^ 




.CiAfi^^'^^'r 



^ ^ Ham-cTion 

O 



**^,^qJk3. ,f Sam-wa 



Map of Ping-an Province. 



Manchiu official. The winter fair was but of slight importance^ 
For the various Chinese goods, and European cottons, the Coreans- 



182 CORE A. 

bartered their fijrs, hides, gold dust, ginseng, and the mulberry 
paper used by Chinese tailors for linings, and for windows. 

Ping-an has the reputation of being very rich in mineral and 
metallic wealth. Gold and silver by report abound, but the na- 
tives are prohibited by the government from working the mines. 
The neutrality of the strip of territory, sixty miles wide and about 
three hundred miles long, and drained by the Tong-kia River, 
between Cho-sen and Chin, was respected by the Chinese gov- 
ernment until 1875, when Li Hung Chung, on complaint of the 
king of Corea, made a descent on the Manchiu outlaws and squat- 
ters settled on the strip. Having despatched a force of troops, 
with gunboats up the Yalu, to co-operate with them, he found the 
region overspread with cultivators. The eyes of the viceroy being 
opened to the fertility of this land, and the navigability of the 
river, he proposed, in a memorial to Peking, that the land be incor- 
porated in the Chinese domain, but that a waU and ditch be built 
to isolate Corea, and that all Chinese trespassers on Corean ground 
be handed over to the mandarins to be sent prisoners to Mukden, 
and to be there beheaded, while Chinese resisting capture should 
be lawfully slain by Coreans. To this the Seoul government 
agreed. By this clever diplomacy the Chinese gained back a 
huge slice of valuable land, probably without the labor of digging 
ditches or building palisades. The old waU of stakes stiU remains, 
in an extremely dilapidated condition. Off the coast are a few 
islands, and a number of shallow banks, around which shell- and 
scale-fish abound. Chinese junks come in fleets every year in the 
fishing season, but their presence is permitted only on condition 
of their never setting foot on shore. In reahty much contraband 
trade is done by the smugglers along the coast. A group of isl- 
ands near the mouth was long the nest of Chinese pirates, but 
these have been broken up by Li Hung Chang's gunboats. Next 
to the Yalu, the most important river of the province is the Ta- 
tong or Ping-an, which discharges a great volume of fresh water 
annually into the sea. A number of large towns and cities are 
situated on or near its banks, and the high road follows the course 
of the river. It is the Eubicon of Cho-sen history, and at various 
epochs in ancient times was the boundary river of China, or of 
the rival states within the peninsula. About fifty miles from its 
mouth is the city of Ping-an, the metropolis of the province, and 
the royal seat of authority, from before the Christian era, to the 
tenth century. Its situation renders it a natural stronghold. It 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 183 

has been many times besieged by Chinese and Japanese armies, 
and near it many battles have been fought. " The General Sher- 
man affair," in 1866, in which the crew of the American schooner 
were murdered — which occasioned the sending of the United 
States naval expedition in 1871 — took place in front of the city of 
Ping-an. Commander J. C. Febiger, in the U. S. S. Shenandoah, 
visited the mouths of the river in 1869, and while vainly waiting 
for the arrest of the murderers, surveyed the inlet, to which he 
gave the name of " Shenandoah." 

By official enumeration, Ping-an contains 293,400 houses, and 
the muster-rolls give 174,538 as the number of men capable of 
miUtary duty. The governor resides at Ping-an. 

There is considerable diversity of character between the in- 
habitants of the eight provinces. Those of the two most north- 
em, particularly of Ping-an, are more violent in temper than the 
other provincials. Very few nobles or official dignitaries live 
among them, hence very few of the refinements of the capital are 
to be found there. They are not over loyal to the reigning dy- 
nasty, and are believed to cherish enmity against it. The govern- 
ment keeps vigilant watch over them, repressing the first show of 
insubordination, lest an insurrection difficult to quell should once 
gain headway. It is from these provinces that most of the refugees 
into Russian territory come. It was among these men that the 
*' General Sherman affair " took place, and it is highly probable 
that even if the regent were really desirous of examining into the 
outrage, he was afraid to do so, when the strong public sentiment 
was wholly on the side of the murderers of the Sherman's crew. 

THE YELLOW-SEA PEOVTNCE. 

AH the eight circuits into which Cho-sen is divided are mari- 
time provinces, but this is the only one which takes its name from 
the body of water on which its borders lie, jutting out into the 
"Whang-hai, or Yellow Sqa, its extreme point lies nearest to Shan- 
tung promontory in China. Its coast line exceeds its land fron- 
tiers. In the period anterior to the Christian era, Whang-hai, was 
occupied by the tribes called the Mahan, and from the second to 
the sixth century, by the kingdom of Hiaksai. It has been the 
camping-ground of the armies of many nations. Here, besides 
the border forays which engaged the troops of the rival kingdoms, 
the Japanese, Chinese, Mongols, and Manchius, have contended 



184 CORBA. 

for victory again and again. The ravages of war, added to a some* 
what sterile soil, are the causes of Whang-hai being the least 
populated province of the eight in the peninsula. From very an- 
cient times the Corean peninsula has been renovnied for its pearls. 
These are of superior lustre and great size. Even before the 
Christian era, when the people lived in caves and mud huts, and 
before they had horses or cattle, the barbaric inhabitants of this 
region wore necklaces of pearls, and sewed them on their cloth- 
ing, row upon row. They amazed the invading hordes of the 
Han dynasty, with such incongruous mixture of wealth and sav- 
agery ; as the Indians, careless of the yellow dust, surprised by 
their indifference to it the gold-greedy warriors of Balboa. Later 
on, the size and brilliancy of Corean pearls became famous all 
over China. They were largely exported. The Chinese merchant 
braved the perils of the sea, and of life among the rude Co- 
reans, to win lustrous gems of great price, which he bartered 
when at home for sums which made him quickly rich. In the 
twelfth century the fame of these *' Eastern pearls," as they were 
then called, and which outrivalled even those from the Tonquin 
fisheries, became the cause of an attempted conquest of the penin- 
sula, the visions of wealth acting as a lure to the would-be inva- 
ders. It may even be that the Corean pearl fisheries were known by 
fame to the story-tellers of the "Arabian Nights Entertainments." 
Much of the mystic philosophy of China concerning pearls is held 
also by the Coreans. The Corean Elysium is a lake of pearls. In 
burying the dead, those who can afford it, fill the mouth of the 
corpse with three pearls, which, if large, will, it is believed, pre- 
serve the dead body from decay. This emblem of three flashing 
pearls, is much in vogue in native art. The gems are found on 
the banks lying off the coast of this province, as well as in the 
archipelago to the south, and at Quelpart. The industry is, at 
present, utterly neglected. The pearls are kept, but no use seems 
to be made of the brilliant nacre of the mussel-shells, which are 
exported to Japan, to be used in inlaying. 

More valuable to the modern people than the now almost aban- 
doned pearl mussel-beds, are the herring fisheries, which, during 
the season, attract fleets of junks and thousands of fishermen from 
the northern coast provinces of China. Opposite, at a distance of 
about eighty miles as the crow flies, measuring from land's end to 
land's end, is the populous province of Shantung, or " Country 
east of the mountains." On the edge of this promontory are the 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 



185 



cities of Cliifu and Teng Chow, while further to the east is Tien- 
tsin, the seaport of Peking. From the most ancient times, Chi- 
nese armadas have sailed, and invading armies have embarked for 
Corea from these ports. Over and over again has the river Ta- 
tong been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the dragon-ban- 
ners at their peaks. From the Shantung headlands, also, Chinese 
pirates have sailed over to the tempting coasts and green islands 
of Corea, to ravage, bum, and kill. To guard against these inva- 
ders, and to notify the arrival of foreigners, signal fires are lighted 
on the hill-tops, which form a cordon of flame and speed the alarm 
from coast to capital in a few hours. These pyrographs or fire 




Map of the Yellow-sea Province. 



signals are called "Pong-wa." At Mok-mie' san, a mountain south 
of the capital, the fire-messages of the three southern provinces 
are received. By day, instead of the pillars of fire, are clouds of 
smoke, made by heaping wet chopped straw or rice-husks on the 
blaze. Instantly a dense white column rises in the air, which, to 
the sentinels from peak to peak, is eloquent of danger. In more 
peaceful times, Corean timber has been largely exported to Chifu, 
and tribute-bearing ships have sailed over to Tientsin. The Chi- 
nese fishermen usually appear off the coast of this province in the 
third month, or April, remaining until June, when their white 
sails, bent homeward, sink from the gaze of the vigilant sentinels 



186 COREA. 

on the hills, who watch continually lest the Chinese set foot on 
shore. This they are forbidden to do on pain of death. In spite 
of the vigilance of the soldiers, however, a great deal of smuggling 
is done at night, between the Coreans and Chinese boatmen, at 
this time, and the French missionaries have repeatedly passed the 
barriers of this forbidden land by disembarking from Chifu junks 
off this coast. The island of Merin (Merin-to) has, on several 
occasions, been trodden by the feet of priests who afterward 
became martyrs. At one time, in June, 1865, four Frenchmen en- 
tered "the lion's den" from this rendezvous. There is a great 
bank of sand and many islands off the coast, the most important 
of the latter being the Sir James Hall group, which was visited, 
in 1816, by Captains Maxwell and Hall, in the ships Lyra and Al- 
ceste. These forest-clad and well-cultivated islands were named 
after the president of the Edinburgh Geographical Society, the 
father of the gallant sailor and lively author who drove the first 
British keel through the unknown waters of the Yellow Sea. East- 
ward from this island cluster is a large bay and inlet near the head 
of which is the fortified city of Chan-yon. 

In January, 1867, Commander K. W. Shufeldt, in the U. S. S. 
"Wachusett, visited this inlet to obtain redress for the murder of 
the crew of the American schooner General Sherman, and while 
vainly waiting, surveyed portions of it, giving the name of Wachu- 
sett Bay to the place of anchorage. Judging from native maps, 
the scale of the chart made from this survey was on too large a 
scale, though the recent map-makers of Tokio have followed it. 
The southern coast also is dotted with groups of islands, and made 
dangerous by large shoals. One of the approaches to the national 
capital and the commercial city of Sunto, or Kai-seng, is navi- 
gable for junks, through a tortuous channel which threads the vast 
sand-banks formed by the Han River. Hai-chiu, the capital, is 
near the southern central coast, and "Whang-chiu, an old baronial 
walled city, is in the north, on the Ta-tong Biver, now, as of old, 
a famous boundary line. 

Though Whang-hai is not reckoned rich, being only the sixth 
in order of the eight circuits, yet there are several products of 
importance. Bock, or fossil salt, is plentiful. Flints for fire-arms 
and household use were obtained here chiefly, though the best 
gun-flints came from China. Lucifer matches and percussion 
rifles have destroyed, or will soon destroy, this ancient industry. 
One district produces excellent ginseng, which finds a ready sale, 



THE EIGHT PROVmCES. 187 

and even from ancient times Whang-liai's pears have been cele- 
brated. Splendid yellow varnish, almost equal to gilding, is also 
made here. The native varnishers are expert and tasteful in its 
use, though far behind the inimitable Japanese. Fine brushes 
for pens, made of the hair of wolves' tails, are also in repute 
among students and merchants. 

The high road from the capital, after passing through Sunto, 
winds through the eastern central part, and crosses a range of 
mountains, the scenery from which is exceedingly fine. Smaller 
roads thread the border of the province and the larger towns, but 
a great portion of Whang-hai along its central length, from east 
to west, seems to be mountainous, and by no means densely 
populated. There are, in all, twenty-eight cities with magistrates. 

Whang-hai was never reckoned by the missionaries as among 
their most promising fields, yet on their map we count fifteen 
or more signs of the cross, betokening the presence of their con- 
verts, and its soil, like that of the other provinces, has more than 
once been reddened by the blood of men who preferred to die for 
their convictions, rather than live the worthless life of the pagan 
renegade. Most of the victims suffered at Hai-chiu, the capital, 
though Whang-chiu, in the north, shares the same sinister fame 
in a lesser degree. The people of Whang-hai are said, by the 
Seoul folks, to be narrow, stupid, and dull. They bear an ill 
name for avarice, bad faith, and a love of lying quite unusual even 
among Coreans. The official enumeration of houses and men fit 
for military duty, is 103,200 of the former and 87,170 of the 
latter. 

KIUNG-KEI, OR THE CAPITAL PROVINCE. 

Kiung-kei, the smallest of the eight circuits, is politically the 
royal or court province, and physically the basin of the largest 
river inside the peninsula. The tremendous force of its current, 
and the volume of its waters bring down immense masses of silt 
annually. Beginning at a point near the capital, wide sand-banks 
are formed, which are bare at low water, but are flooded in time 
of rain, or at the melting of the spring snows. The tides rise to 
the height of twenty or thirty feet, creating violent eddies and 
currents, in which the management of ships is a matter of great 
difficulty. The Han is navigable for foreign vessels, certainly as 
far as the capital, as two French men-of-war proved in 1866, and 
it may be ascended still farther in light steamers. The causes 



188 



COREA. 



of the violence, coldness, and rapidity of the currents of Han 
Eiver (called Salt or Salee on our charts), which have baffled 
French and American steamers, will be recognized by a study of 
its sources. The head waters of this stream are found in the dis- 
tant province of Kang-wen, nearly the whole breadth of the penin- 
sula from the mouth. .Almost the entire area of this province of 
the river-sources, including the western watershed of the moun- 
tain range that walls the eastern coast, is drained by the tributa- 
ries which form the river, which also receives affluents from two 
other provinces. Pouring their united volume past the capital, 
shifting channels and ever new and unexpected bars and flats are 




Map of the Capital Province. 



formed, rendering navigation, and especially warlike naval opera- 
tions, very difficult. Its channel is very hard to find from the sea. 
The French, in 1845, attempting its exploration, were foiled. 
Like most rivers in Cho-sen, the Han has many local names. 

The city of Han- Yang, or Seoul, is situated on the north side of 
the river, about thirty-five mUes from its mouth, measuring by a 
straight liae, or fifty miles if reckoned by the channel of the river. 
It lies in 37° 30' north latitude, and 127° 4' longitude, east from 
Greenwich. The name Han-yang, means "the fortress on the 
Han Kiver." The common term applied to the royal city is Seoul, 
which means "the capital," just as the Japanese called the capital 
of their country Miako, or Kio, instead of saying Kioto. Seoul is 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 183 

properly a common noun, but by popular use has become a proper 
name, wbicb, in English, may be correctly written with a capital 
initial. According to the locahty whence they come, the natives 
pronounce the name Say'-ool, Shay'-ool, or Say'-oor. The city is 
often spoken of as "the king's residence," and on foreign maps is 
marked *'King-ki Tao," which is the name of the province. The 
city proper lies distant nearly a league from the river bank, but 
has suburbs, extending down to the sand-flats. A pamphlet lately 
published in the city gives it 30,723 houses, which, allowing five 
in a house, would give a population of over 150,000 souls. The 
natural advantages of Seoul are excellent. On the north a high 
range of the Ho Mountain rises like a waU, to the east towers the 
Eidge of Barriers, the mighty flood of the Han roUs to the south, 
a bight of which washes the western suburb. 

The scenery from the capital is magnificent, and those walking 
along the city walls, as they rise over the hill-crests and bend into 
the valleys, can feast their eyes on the luxuriant verdure and glori- 
ous mountain views for which this country is noted. The walls of 
the city are of crenellated masonry of varying height, averaging 
about twenty feet, with arched stone bridges spanning the water- 
courses, as seen in the reproduced photograph on page 79. The 
streets are narrow and tortuous. The king's castle is in the north- 
ern part. The high roads to the eight points of the compass start 
from the palace, through the city gates. Within sight from the 
river are the 0-pong san, and the Sam-kak san or three-peaked 
mountain, which the French have named Cock's Comb. North of 
the city is Cho-kei, or tide-valley, in which is a waterfall forty feet 
high. This spot is a great resort for tourists and picnic parties 
in the spring and summer. From almost any one of the hills near 
the city charming views of the island-dotted river may be ob- 
tained, and the sight of the spring floods, or of the winter ice 
breaking up and shooting the enormous blocks of ice with terrific 
force down the current, that piles them up into fantastic shapes 
or strews the shores, is much enjoyed by the people. Inundations 
are frequent and terrible in this province, but usually the water 
subsides quickly. Not much harm is done, and the floods enrich 
the soil, except where they deposit sand only. There are few 
large bridges over the rivers, but in the cities and towns, stone 
bridges, constructed with an arch and of good masonry, are built. 
The islands in the river near the capital are inhabited by fisher- 
men, who pay their taxes in fish. Another large stream which 



190 



COREA. 



joins its waters with the Han, within a few miles from its mouth 
near Kang-wa Island, is the Rin-chin Eiver, whose head waters are 
among the mountains at the north of Kang-wen, within thirty 
miles of the newly-opened port of Gen-san on the eastern coast. 
Several important towns are situated on or near its banks, and it 
is often mentioned in the histories which detail the movements of 
the armies, which from China, Japan, and the teeming North, have 
often crossed and recrossed it. 

Naturally, we expect to find the military geography of this 
province well studied by the authorities, and its strategic points 
strongly defended. An inspection of the map shows us that we 




Military Geography of Seoul. 



are not mistaken. Four great fortresses guard the approaches 
to the royal city. These are Suwen to the south, Kwang-chiu to 
the southeast, Sunto or Kai-seng to the north, and Kang-wa to the 
west. All these fortresses have been the scene of siege and 
battle in time past. On the walls of the first three, the rival 
banners of the hosts of Ming from China and of Taiko from 
Japan were set in alternate succession by the victors who held 
them during the Japanese occupation of the country, between the 
years 1592 and 1597. The Manchiu standards in 1637, and the 
French eagles in 1866, were planted on the ramparts of Kang-wa. 
Besides these castled cities, there are forts and redoubts along the 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 191 

river banks, crowning most of the commanding headlands, or points 
of vantage. Over these the stars and stripes floated for three 
days, in 1871, when the American forces captured these strong- 
holds. In most cases the walls of cities and forts are not over ten 
feet high, though, in those of the first order, a height of twenty- 
five feet is obtained. None of them would offer serious difficulty 
to an attacking force possessing modem artillery. 

Kai-seng, or Sunto, is one of the most important, if not the 
chief, commercial city in the kingdom, and from 960 to 1392, it 
was the national capital. The chief staple of manufacture and 
sale is the coarse cotton cloth, white and colored, which forms 
the national dress. Kang-wa, on the island of the same name at 
the mouth of the Han River, is the favorite fortress, to which the 
royal family are sent for safety in time of war, or are banished in 
case of deposition. Kang-wa means *'the river-flower." During 
the Manchiu invasion, the king fled here, and, for a while, made 
it his capital. Kwang-chiu was anciently the capital of the old 
kingdom of Hiaksai, which included this province, and flourished 
from the beginning of the Christian era until the Tang dynasty 
of China destroyed it in the seventh century. Kwang-chiu has 
suffered many sieges. Other important towns near the capital are 
Tong-chin, opposite Kang-wa, Kum-po, and Pupion, all situated 
on the high road. In-chiiin, situated on Imperatrice Gulf, is the 
port newly opened to foreign trade and residence. The Japanese 
pronounce the characters with which the name is written, Nin-sen, 
and the Chinese Jen-chuan. At this place the American and Chi- 
nese treaties were signed in June, 1882 ; Commodore Shufeldt, in 
the steam corvette Swatara, being the plenipotentiary of the 
United States. Situated on the main road from the southern 
provinces, and between the capital and the sea, the location is a 
good one for trade, while the dangerous channel of the Han River 
is avoided. 

Most of the islands lying off the coast are well wooded ; many 
are inhabited, and on a number of them shrines are erected, and 
hermits live, who are regarded as sacred. Their defenceless posi- 
tion offer tempting inducements to the Chinese pirates, who have 
often ravaged them. Kiung-kei has been the scene of battles and 
contending armies and nations and the roadway for migrations 
from the pre-historic time to the present decade. The great high- 
ways of the kingdom converge upon its chief city. In it also 
Christianity has witnessed its grandest triumphs and bloodiest 



192 COREA. 

defeats. Over and over again the seed of the church has been 
planted in the biood of its martyrs. Ka-pion, east of Seoul, is the 
cradle of the faith, the home of its first convert. 

For political purposes, this "home province " is divided into 
the left and right divisions, of which the former has twenty-tw^o, 
and the latter fourteen districts. The Jcam-sa, or governor, lives 
at the capital, but outside of the walls, as he has little or no au- 
thority in the city proper. His residence is near the west gate. 
The enumeration of houses and people gives, exclusive of the 
capital, 136,000 of the former, and 680,000 of the latter, of whom 
106,573 are enrolled as soldiers. The inhabitants of the capital 
province enjoy the reputation, among the other provincials, of 
being light-headed, fickle, and much given to luxury and pleasure. 
" It is the officials of this province," they say, *' who give the cue 
to those throughout the eight provinces, of rapacity, prodigality, 
and love of display." Official grandees, nobles, literary men, and 
professionals generally are most numerous in Kiimg-kei, and so, 
it may be added, are singing and dancing girls and people who 
live to amuse others. When fighting is to be done, in time of 
war, the government usually calls on the northern provinces to 
furnish soldiers. From a bird's-eye view of the history of this 
part of Corea, we see that the inhabitants most anciently known 
to occupy it were the independent clans called the Ma-han, which 
about the beginning of the Christian era were united into the 
kingdom of Hiaksai, which existed until its destruction by the 
Tang dynasty of China, in the seventh century. From that time 
until 930 A.D. it formed a part of the kingdom of Shinra, which in 
turn made way for united Korai, which first gave political imity 
to the peninsula, and lasted until 1392, when the present dy- 
nasty with Cho-sen, or Corea, as we now know it, Avas established. 
The capital cities in succession from Hiaksai to Cho-sen were, 
Kwang-chiu, Sunto, and Han-yang. 

CHUNG-CHONG, OR SERENE LOYALTY. 

The province of Serene Loyalty lies mostly between the thirty- 
sixth and thirty-seventh parallel. Its principal rivers are the 
Keum, flowing into Basil's Bay, and another, which empties into 
Prince Jerome Gulf. Its northeast corner, is made by the Han 
River bending in a loop around the White Cloud (Paik Un) Moun- 
tain. Fertile flats and valleys abound. The peninsula of Nai-po 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 193 

(within the waters), in the northwestern corner, is often called 
the " Granary of the Kingdom." Most of the rice of the Nai-po, 
and the province generally, is raised for export to the capital and 
the north. In the other circuits the rice lands are irrigated by 
leading the water from the streams through each field, which is di- 
vided from the other by little walls or barriers of earth, while in 
this region, and in Chulla, the farmers more frequently make 
great reservoirs or ponds, in which water is stored for use in dry 
weather. The mountains are the great reservoirs of moisture, for 
in all the peninsula there is not a lake of noticeable size. The 
coast line is weU indented with bays and harbors, and the run to 
Shantung across the Yellow Sea is easily made by junks, and even 
in open boats. On this account the native Christians and French 
missionaries have often chosen this province as their gate of entry 
into the "land of martyi-s." 

In the history of Corean Christianity this province will ever 
be remembered as the nursery of the faith. Its soil has been 
most richly soaked with the blood of the native believers. With 
unimportant exceptions, every town along its northern border, and 
especially in the Nai-po, has been sown with the seeds of the faith. 
The first converts and confessors, the most devoted adherents of 
their French teachers, the most gifted and intelligent martyrs, were 
from Nai-po, and it is nearly certain that the fires of Roman Chris- 
tianity still smoulder here, and will again burst into flame at the 
first fanning of favorable events. The three great highways from 
Fusan to the capital cross this province in the northeastern portion. 
Over these roads the rival Japanese armies of invasion, led by 
Konishi and Kato, passed in jealous race in 1592, reaching the 
capital, after fighting and reducing castles on the way, in eighteen 
days after disembarkation. Chion-Chiu, the fortress on whose 
fate the capital depended, lies in the northeast, where two of the 
roads converge. The western, or sea road, that comes up from 
the south, hugs the shore through the entire length of the prov- 
-;nce. Others, along which the Japanese armies marched in 1592, 
and again in 1597, traverse the central part. Along one of these 
roads, the captive Hollanders, almost the first Europeans in Corea, 
rode in 1663, and one of the cities of which Hamel speaks, Kon- 
sio (Kong-Chiu), is the capital and residence of the provincial 
governor. 

The bays and islands, which have been visited by foreign navi- 
gators, retain their names on European or Japanese charts. Some 
13 



194 



COREA. 



of these are not very complimentary, as Deception Bay, Insult 
Island, and False Biver. At Basil's Bay, named after Captain 
Basil Hall, Gutzlaff also landed in 1832, planted potatoes, and left 
seeds and books. Tlie archipelago to the northwest was, in 1866, 
named after the Prince Imperial, who met his death in Zululand 
in 1878. Prince Jerome's Gulf is well known as the scene of the 
visits of the Eover and the Emperor, with the author of "A For- 
bidden Land" on board. Haimi, a town several times mentioned 
by him, is at the head of Shoal Gulf, which runs up into the 
Nai-po. Two other bays, named Caroline and Deception, indent 
the Nai-po peninsula. 




Map of Chung-chong Province. 

The large shoal off the coast is called Chasseriau. Other wide 
and dangerous shoals line parts of the coast, making navigation 
exceedingly difficult. Fogs are frequent and very dense, shroud- 
ing all landmarks for hours. The tides and currents are very 
strong, rising in some places even as high as sixty feet. The in- 
ternational body-snatching expedition, undertaken by a French 
priest, a German merchant, and an American interpreter, in 1867, 
to obtain the bones or ancestral relics of the Regent, was planned 
to take advantage of a certain "nick of time." The river empty- 
ing into the Prince Jerome Gulf, runs some thirty miles inland, 
and can be ascended by a barge, or very light-draught steamer, only 
within the period of thirty hours during spring tides, when the 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 195 

water rises to a lieight of three feet at the iitniost, while during 
the rest of the month it dries up completely. On account of 
delays, through grounding, miscalculated distances, and the bur- 
glar-proof masonry of Corean tombs, the scheme failed. The nar- 
rative of this remarkable expedition is given in a certain book on 
Corea, and in the proceedings of the United States Consular Coui't 
at Shanghae, China, for the jesLV 1867. 

The flora is a brilliant feature of the summer landscape. 
Tiger-lilies and showy composites, asters, cactus plants, cruciferse, 
labiatse, and many other European species abound side by side 
with tropical varieties. The air is full of insects, and the number 
and variety of the birds exceed those of Japan. Pigeons, butcher- 
birds, fly-catchers, woodpeckers, thrushes, larks, blackbirds, king- 
fishers, wrens, spoonbills, quail, curlew, titmouse, have been no- 
ticed. The ever-present black crows contrast with the snowy 
heron, which often stand in rows along the watercourses, while 
on the reefs the cormorant, sea-gulls, and many kinds of ducks 
and diving birds, many of them being of species differing from 
those in Europe, show the abundance of winged life. The archi- 
pelago and the peninsula alike, are almost virgin soil to the stu- 
dent of natural history and the man of science will yet, in this 
secluded nook of creation, solve many an interesting problem con- 
cerning the procession of life on the globe. So far as known, the 
Coreans seem far behind the Japanese in the study and classifica- 
tion of animate nature. 

The Coreans are not a seafaring peopb. They do not sail out 
from land, except upon rare occasions, A steamer is yet, to most 
Coreans, a wonderful thing. The common folks point to one, and 
call it " a divine ship." The reason of this is, that they think the 
country of steamships so utterly at the ends of the earth, that to 
pass over ten million leagues, and endure the winds and waves, 
could not be done by human aid, and therefore such a ship must 
have, in some way, the aid of the gods. The prow and stern of 
fishing-boats are much alike, and are neatly nailed together with 
wooden nails. They use round stems of trees in their natural 
state, for masts. The sails are made of straw, plaited together 
with cross-bars of bamboo. The sail is at the stern of the boat. 
They sail well within three points of the wind, and the fishermen 
are very skilful in managing them. In their working-boats, they 
do not use oars, but sculls, worked on a pivot in the gunwale or 
an outrigger. The sculls have a very long sweep, and are worked 



196 



COREA. 



by two, three, and even ten men. For narrow rivers this method 
is very convenient, and many boats can easily pass each other, or 
move side by side, taking up very httle room. For fishing among 
the rocks, or for landing in the surf, rafts are extensively used all 
along the coasts. These rafts have a platform, capable of holding 
eight or ten persons. The boats or barges, which are used for 
pleasure excursions and picnic parties, have high bows and orna- 
mental sterns, carved or otherwise decorated. Over the centre a 
canopy stretched on four poles, tufted with horsehair, shelters the 
pleasure-seekers from the sun as they enjoy the river scenery. In 
the cut we see three officials, or men of rank, enjoying themselves 
at a table, on which may be tea, ginseng infusion, or rice spirit, 




A Pleasure-party on the River 



with fruits in dishes. They sit on silken cushions, and seem to be 
pledging each other in a friendly cup. Perhaps they will compose 
and exchange a pedantic poem or two on the way. In the long, high 
bow there is room for the two men to walk the deck, while with 
their poles they propel the craft gently along the stream, while the 
steersman handles the somewhat unwieldy rudder The common 
people use a boat made of plain unpainted wood, neatly joined 
together, without nails or metal, the fastenings being of wood, the 
cushions of straw matting and the cordage of sea grass. 

By official reckoning Chung-chong contains 244,080 houses, 
with 139,201 men enrolled for military service, in fifty-four 
districts. It contains ten walled cities, and like every other one 
of the eight provinces is divided into two departments, Riglit and 
Left. 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 197 



CHULLA, OR COMPLETE NETWOEK. 



This province, the most southern of the eight, is also the 
warmest and most fertile. It is nearest to Shang-hae, and to the 
track of foreign commerce. Its island-fringed shores have been 
the scene of many shipwrecks, among which were the French 
frigates, whose names Glory and Victory, were better than their 
inglorious end, on a reef near Kokun Island. 

Until the voyage of Captains Maxwell and Basil Hall, in the 
Alceste and Lyra, in 1816, "the Corean archipelago" was abso- 
lutely unknown in Europe, and was not even marked on Chinese 
charts. In the map of the empire, prepared by the Jesuits at 
Peking in the seventeenth century, the main land was made to 
extend out over a space now known to be covered by hundreds of 
islands, and a huge elephant — the conventional sign of ignorance 
of the map-makers of that day — occupied the space. In these 
virgin waters. Captain Hall sailed over imaginary forests and 
cities, and straight through the body of the elephant, and for the 
first time explored an archipelago which he found to be one of the 
most beautiful on earth. A later visitor, and a naturalist, states 
that from a single island peak, one may count one hundred and 
thirty-five islets. Stretching far away to the north and to the 
south, were groups of dark blue islets, rising mistily from the sur- 
face of the water. The sea was covered with large picturesque 
boats, which, crowded with natives in their white fluttering robes, 
were putting off from the adjacent villages, and sculling across, 
the pellucid waters to visit the stranger ship. 

On these islands, as Arthur Adams tells us, the seals sport, the 
spoonbill, quail, curlew, titmouse, wagtail, teal, crane and innu- 
merable birds thrive. The woody peaks are rich in game, and the 
shores are happy hunting-grounds for the natizralist. Sponges 
are very plentiful, and in some places may be gathered in any 
quantity. There are a number of well-marked species. Some are 
flat and spHt into numerous ribbon-like branches, others are round 
and finger-shaped, some cylindrical, and others like hollbw tubes. 
Though some have dense white foliations, hard or horny, others 
are loose and flexible, and await only the hand of the diver. The 
Corean toilet requisites perhaps do not include these useful arti- 
cles, which lie waste in the sea. The coral-beds are also very- 
splendid in their living tints of green, blue, violet, and yeUow,, 



198 COREA. 

and appear, as you look down upon them through the clear trans, 
parent water, to form beautiful flower-gardens of marine plants. 
In these submarine parterres, amid the protean forms of the 
branched corals, huge madrepores, brain-shaped, flat, or headed 
like gigantic mushrooms, are interspersed with sponges of the 
deepest red and huge star-fishes of the richest blue. Seals sport 
and play unharmed on many of the islands, and the sea-beach is 
at times blue with the bodies of lively crabs. An unfailing store- 
house of marine food is found in this archipelago. 

The eight provinces take their names from their two chief cities, 
as Mr. Carles has shown. Whang Hai Do, for instance, is formed 
by uniting the initial syllables of the largest cities, Whang-chiu and 
Hai-chiu. In the case of ChuUa-Do, the Chon and Nai in Chon- 
chiu and Nai-chiu (or Chung-jiu and Na-jiu) become, by euphony, 
ChuUa or ChoUa. Hamel tells of the great cayman or "alligator," 
as inhabiting this region, asserting that it was " eighteen or twenty 
ells long," with "sixty joints in the back," and able to swallow a 
man/ 

The soil of ChuUa is rich and well cultivated, and large quan- 
tities of rice and grain are shipped to the capital. The wide val- 
leys afford juicy pasture for the herds of cattle that furnish the. beef 
diet which the Cor cans crave more than the Japanese. The visit- 
ing or shipwrecked foreign visitors on the coast speak in terms of 
highest praise of fat bullocks, and juicy steaks which they have 
eaten. Considerable quantities of hides, bones, horns, leather, 
and tallow now form a class of standard exports to Japan, whose 
people now wear buttons and leather shoes. As a beef market, 
Corea exceeds either China or Japan — a point of importance to 
the large number of foreigners living at the ports, who require a 
flesh diet. Troops of horses graze on the pasture lands. 

ChuUa is well furnished with ports and harbors for the junks 
that ply northward. The town of Mopo, in latitude 34° 40', has 
been looked upon by the Japanese as a favorable place for trade 
and residence, and may yet be opened under the provisions of 
the treaty of 1876. This region does not lack sites of great 
historic interest. The castle of Nanon, in the eastern part, was 

' Mr. Pierre L. Jouy, of tlie Smithsonian Institute, who in 1884 spent six 
months in Corea in zoological collecting and research, says: "No monkeys or 
alligators are found in Corea. I am at a loss to understand how the alligator 
story originated." Was the alleged animal the giant salamander, or the aki? 
Japanese art and legend refer often to alligators. 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 



199 



tlie scene of a famous siege and battle between the allied Coreans 
and Chinese and the Japanese besiegers, during the second inva- 




Map of Chulla-do. 

sion, in 1597. The investment lasted many weeks, and over five 
thousand men were slaughtered. It was in this province also 
that the crew of the Dutch ship Sparrowhawk were kept prison- 



200 COREA. 

ers, some for thirteen years, some for life, of whom Hendrik 
Hamel wrote so graphic a narrative. For two centuries his little 
work afforded the only European knowledge of Corea accessible 
to inquirers. Among other employments, the Dutch captives 
were set to making pottery, and this province has many villages 
devoted to the fictile art. The work turned out consists, in the 
main, of those huge earthem jars for holding water and grains, 
common to Corean households, and large enough to hold one of 
the forty thieves of Arabian Nights story. 

Through the labors of the French missionaries, Christianity 
has penetrated into Chulla-do, and a large number of tovms, espe- 
cially in the north, still contain believers who are the descendants 
or relatives of men and women who have exchanged their lives for 
a good confession. The tragedy and romance of the Christian 
martyrs, of this and other provinces, have been told by Dallet. 
Most of the executions have taken place at the capital city of 
Chon-chiu. Many have been banished to Quelpart, or some of 
the many islands along the coast, where it is probable many yet 
live and pine. 

Three large, and several small rivers drain the valleys. Two 
of these flow into the Yellow Sea and one into the sea of Japan. 
The main highway of this province traverses the western portion 
near the sea, the other roads being of inferior importance. Forti- 
fied cities or castle towns are numerous in this part of Corea, for 
this province was completely overrun by the Japanese armies in 
1592-1597, and its soil was the scene of many battles. By official 
enumeration there are 290,550 houses, and 206,140 males enrolled 
for service in war. The districts number fifty-six. The capital 
is Chon-chiu, which was once considered the second largest city 
in the kingdom. 

If Corea is "the Italy of the East," then Quelpart is its 
Sicily. It lies about sixty miles south of the main land. It may 
be said to be an oval, rock-bound island, covered with innumer- 
able conical mountains, topped in many instances by extinct vol- 
canic craters, and " all bovdng dovm before one vast and towering 
giant, whose foot is planted in the centre of the island, and 
whose head is lost in the clouds." This peak, called Mount Auck- 
land, or Han-ra san, by the people, is about 6,500 feet high. On 
its top are three extinct craters, within each of which is a lake of 
pure water. Corean children are taught to believe that the three 
first-created men of the world still dwell on these lofty heights. 



THE BIGHT PROVINCES. 201 

The whole surface of the island, including plains, valleys, and 
mountain flanks, is carefully and beautifully cultivated. The fields 
are neatly divided by walls of stone. It contains a number of 
towns and three walled cities, but there are no good harbors. As 
Quelpart has long been used as a place for the banishment of 
convicts, the islanders are rude and unpolished. They raise excel- 
lent crops of grain and fruit for the home provinces. The finely- 
plaited straw hats, which form the staple manufacture, are the 
best in this land of big hats, in which the amplitude of the head- 
coverings is the wonder of strangers. Immense droves of horses 
and cattle are reared, and one of the outlying islands is called 
Bullock Island. This island has been known from ancient times, 
when it formed an independent kingdom, known as Tam-na. 
-ibout 100 A.D., it is recorded that the inhabitants sent tribute to 
one of the states on the main land. The origin of the high cen- 
tral peak, named Mount Auckland, is thus given by the islanders. 
" Clouds and fogs covered the sea, and the earth trembled with a 
noise of thunder for seven days and seven nights. Finally the 
waves opened, and there emerged a mountain more than one 
thousand feet high, and forty ri in circumference. It had neither 
plants nor trees upon it, and clouds of smoke, widely spread out, 
covered its summit, which appeared to be composed chiefly of 
sulphur." A learned Corean was sent to examine it in detail. He 
did so, and on his return to the main land published an account 
of his voyage, with a sketch of the mountain thus born out of the 
sea. It is noticeable that this account coincides with the ideas of 
navigators, who have studied the mountain, and speculated on its 
origin. 

KIUNG-SANG, OR RESPECTFUL CONGRATULATION. 

Kiung-sang do, or the Province of Respectful Congratulation, 
is nearest to Japan, and consists chiefly of the valleys drained by 
the Nak-tong Eiver and its tributaries. It admirably illustrates 
the principle of the division of the country on the lines furnished 
by the river basins. One of the warmest and richest of the eight 
provinces, it is also the most populous, and the seat of many his- 
torical associations with Japan, in ancient, mediseval, and modem 
times. Between the court of Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra, and 
that of Kioto, from the third to the tenth century, the relations 
of war and peace, letters, and religion were continuous and fruit- 
ful. "When the national capital was fixed at Sunto, and later at 



202 CORBA. 

Seoul, this province was still tlie gateway of entrance and exit to 
the Japanese. Many a time have they landed near the mouth ol 
the Nak-tong River, which opens as a natural pass in the moun- 
tains which wall in the coast. Rapidly seizing the strategic points, 
they have made themselves masters of the country. The influence 
of their frequent visitations is shown in the language, manners, 
and local customs of southern Cho-sen. The dialect of Kiung- 
sang differs to a marked degree from that of Ping-an, and much 
more closely resembles that of modern Japanese. Kiung-sang 
seems to show upon its surface that it is one of the most ancient 
seats of civilization in the peninsula. This is certainly so if roads 
and facilities for travelling be considered. The highways and foot- 
paths and the relays and horses kept for government service, 
and for travellers, are more numerous than in any other province. 
It also contains the greatest number of cities having organized 
municipal governments, and is the most densely populated of the 
eight provinces. It is also probable that in its natural resources it 
leads aU the others. The province is divided into seventy-one dis- 
tricts, each having a magistrate, in which are 421,500 houses, and 
310,440 men capable of military duty. Two officials of high rank 
assist the governor in his functions, and the admirals of the 
" Sam-nam," or three southern provinces, have their headquarters 
in Kiung-sang. This title and office, one of the most honorable 
in the military service, was created after the Japanese war of 
1592-1597, in honor of a Corean commander, who had success- 
fully resisted the invaders in many battles. There are five cities 
of importance, which are under the charge of governors. Petty 
officials are also appointed for every island, who must report the 
arrival or visit of all foreigners at once to their superiors. They 
were always in most favor at court who succeeded in prevail- 
ing upon all foreign callers to leave as soon as possible. Fusan 
has been held by the Japanese from very ancient times. Until 
1868 it was a part of the fief of the daimio of Tsushima. It lies 
in latitude 35° 6' north, and longitude 129° 1' east from Green- 
wich, and is distant from the nearest point on the Japan coast, by 
a straight line, about one hundred and fifty miles. It was opened 
to the Japanese by the treaty of 1876, and is now a bustling mart 
of trade. The name means, not "Gold Hill," but Pot or Skillet 
Mountain. 

The approach to the port up the bay is through very fine scen- 
ery, the background of the main land being mountainous and the 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 203 

bay studded with green islands. The large island in front of the 
settlement, to the southward, called Tetsuye, or the Isle of En- 
chanting View, has hills eight hundred feet high. Hundreds of 
horses were formerly reared here, hence it is often called Maki, or 
island of green pastures. The fortifications of Fusan, on the 
northern side, are on a hill, and front the sea. The soil around 
Fusan is of a dark niddy color, and fine fir trees are numerous. 
The fort is distant about a league from the settlement, and Tong- 
nai city and castle, in which the Corean governor resides, are 
about two leagues farther. Tai-ku, the capital, lies in the centre 
of the province. Shang-chiu, in the northwestern part, is one of 
the fortified cities guarding the approach to the capital from the 
southeast. It was captured by Konishi during his brilliant march, 
in eighteen days, to the capital in 1592. In recent years, much 
Christian blood has been shed in Shang-chiu, though the city which 
justly claims the bad eminence in slaughtering Christians is Tai-ku, 
the capital of the province. Uru-san, a few miles south, is a site 
rich in classic memories to all Japanese, for here, in 1597, the Chi- 
nese and Corean hosts besieged the intrepid Kato and the brave, 
but not over-modest, Ogawuchi for a whole year, during which the 
garrison were reduced, by straits of famine, to eat human flesh. 
"When the Chinese retreated, and a battle was fought near by, be- 
tween them and the relieving forces, ten thousand men were slain. 
Foreign navigators have sprinkled their names along the shore. 
Cape Clonard and Unkoffsky Bay are near the thirty-sixth parallel. 
Cho-san harbor was named by Captain Broughton, who on asking 
the name of the place in 1797, received the reply "Cho-san," 
which is the name of the kingdom instead of the harbor. Other 
names of limited recognition are found on charts made in Europe. 
Many inhabited islands lie off the coast, some of which are used 
as places of exile to Christians and other offenders against the law. 
Christianity in this province seems to have flourished chiefly in 
the towns along the southern sea border. Nearly the whole of the 
coast consists of the slopes of the two mountain ranges which 
front the sea, and is less densely inhabited than the interior, hav- 
ing few or no rivers or important harbors. The one exception is 
at the mouth of the Nak-tong Kiver, opposite Tsushima. This is 
the gateway into the province, and the point most vulnerable from 
Japan. The river after draining the whole of Kiung-sang, widens 
into a bay, around which are populous cities and towns, the port 
of Fusan and the two great roads to Seoul. Tsushima (the Twin 



204 



COREA. 



Islands) lies like a stepping-stone between Corea and Japan, and 
was formerly claimed by the Coreans, who call it Tu-ma. Its port 
of Wani-ura is thirty miles distant from Fusan, and often shelters 




Map of the Province nearest Japan. 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 205 

the becalmed or storm-stayed junks which, with fair wind and 
weather, can make the run between the two countries in a single 
day. 

From a strategic military point of view, the Twin Islands are 
invaluable to the mikado's empire, guarding, as they do, the sea 
of Japan Hke a sentinel. The Russians who now own the long 
island at the upper end of the sea, attempted, in 1859, to obtain 
a footing on Tsushima. They built barracks and planted seed, 
with every indication of making a permanent occupation. The 
timely appearance on the scene of a fleet of British ships, under 
Sir James Hope, put an end to Russian designs on Tsushima. 

A Japanese writer reports that the Kiung-sang people ai-e 
rather more simple in their habits, less corrupted in their man- 
ners, and their ancient customs are more faithfully preserved than 
in some of the other provinces. There is Httle of luxury and less 
of expensive folly, so that the small estates or property are faith- 
fully transmitted from father to son, for many generations, in the 
same families. Studious habits prevail, and literature flourishes. 
Often the young men, after toiling during the day, give the even- 
ing to reading and conversation, for which admirable practice the 
native language has a special word. Here ladies of rank are not 
so closely shut up in-doors as in other provinces, but often walk 
abroad, accompanied by their servants, without fear of insult. In 
this province also Buddhism has the largest number of adherents. 
Kion-chiu, the old capital of Shinra, was the centre of the scholas- 
tic and missionary influences of the Buddha doctrine in Corea, 
and, though burned by the Japanese in 1597, its influence stiU 
survives. 

The people are strongly attached to their superstitions, and 
difficult to change, but to whatever faith they are once converted 
they are steadfast and loyal. The numerous nobles who dwell in 
this province, belong chiefly to the Nam In party. 



KANG-WEN, THE RIVER- MEADOW PROVINCE. 

Kang-wen fronts Japan from the middle of the eastern coast, 
and lies between Ham-kiung and Kiung-sang. Its name means 
River Meadow. Within its area are found the sources of " the 
river" of the realm. Though perhaps the most mountainous of all 
the provinces, it contains several fertile plains, which are watered 
by streams flowing mainly to the west, forming the Han River, 



206 COREA. 

which crosses the entire peninsula, and empties into the Yellow 
Sea. The main mountain chain of the country, called here the 
Makira, runs near the coast, leaving the greater area of the prov- 
ince to the westward. The larger part of the population, the 
most important high roads, and the capital city Wen-chiu, are in 
the western division, which contains twenty-six districts, the east- 
em division having seventeen. The official census gives the num- 
ber of houses at 93,000, and of men capable of bearing arms^ 
44,000. 

Some of the names of mountains in this province give one a 
general idea of the geographical nomenclature of the kingdom, 
reflecting, as it does, the ideas and beliefs of the people. One 
peak is named Yellow Dragon, another the Flying Phoenix, and 
another the Hidden Dragon (not yet risen up from the earth on 
his passage to the clouds or to heaven). Hard Metal, Oxhead, 
Mountain facing the Sun, Cool Valley, Wild Swamp, White Cloud, 
and Peacock, are other less heathenish, and perhaps less poetical 
names. One range is said to have twelve hundred peaks, and from 
another, rivers fall down Hke snow for several hundred feet. These 
" snowy rivers " are cataracts. Deer are very plentiful, and the 
best hartshorn for the pharmacy of China comes from these parts. 
Out in the sea, about a degree and a haK from the coast, Hes an 
island, called by the Japanese Matsu-shima, or Pine Island, by 
the Coreans U-lon-to, and by Europeans, Dagelet This island was 
first discovered by the French navigator, La Perouse, in June, 
1787. In honor of an astronomer, it was named Dagelet Island. 
"It is very steep, but covered with fine trees from the sea-shore 
to the summit. A rampart of bare rock, nearly as perpendicular 
as a waU, completely surrounds it, except seven sandy Httle coves at 
which it is possible to land." The grand central peak towers foui' 
thousand feet into the clouds. Firs, sycamores, and juniper trees 
abound. Sea-bears and seals live in the water, and the few poor 
Coreans who inhabit the island dry the flesh of the seals and 
large quantities of petrels and hahotis, or sea-ears, for the markets 
or the main land. The island is occasionally visited by Japanese 
junks and foreign whaling ships, as whales are plentiful in the sur- 
rounding waters. The Japanese obtained the timber for the pub- 
lic and other buildings at their new settlement at Gensan from 
this island. 

The Land of Morning Calm is, by all accounts of travellers, a 
land of beauty, and the customs and literature of the people 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 207 

prove that the superb and inspiring scenery of their peninsula is 
fully appreciated by themselves. Not only are picnics and pleas- 
ure gatherings, within the gToves, common to the humbler classes, 
but the wealthy travel great distances simply to enjoy the beauty 
of marine or mountain views. Scholars assemble at chosen seats, 
having fair landscapes before them, poets seek inspiration under 
waterfalls, and the bonzes, understanding the awe-compelling in- 
fluence of the contemplation of natiu-e's grandeur, plant their 
monasteries and build their temples on lofty mountain heights. 
These favorite haunts of the lovers of natural beauty are as well 
known to the Coreans as Niagara and Yo Semite are to Ameri- 
cans, or Chamouni to all Europe. The places in which the glory 
of the Creator's works may be best beheld are the theme of 
ardent discussion and competing praise with the people of each 
province. The local guide-books, itineraries, and gazetteers, de- 
scant upon the merits of the scenery, for which each of the eight 
divisions is renowned. In the Eiver-meadow province, the eight 
most lovely " sceneries " are aU located along the coast. Begin- 
ning at the south, and taking them in order toward the north, 
they are the following : 

1. The house on Uru-chin, a town below the thirty-seventh 
parallel of latitude. The inn is called " The House of the Emer- 
ging Sun," because here the sun seems to rise right out of the 
waters of the ocean. In front of the coast lies an island, set like 
a gem in the sea. The view of the rising sun, the tints of sky, 
river, waves, land, and mountains form a vision of gorgeous mag- 
nificence. 

2. Hion-hai (Tranquil Sea). Out in the sea, in front of this 
village, are many small islands. When the moon rises, they seem 
to be floating in a sea of molten silver. The finest effect is en- 
joyed just before the orb is fully above the horizon. In many of 
the dwellings of the men of rank and wealth, there is a special 
room set apart for the enjoyment of the scenery, upon which the 
apartment looks. Especially is this the case, with the houses of 
public entertainment. At Hion-hai, one of the inns from which 
the best view may be obtained is called the " House Fronting the 
Moon." In it are several " looking-rooms." 

3. One of the finest effects in nature is the combination of 
fresh fallen snow on evergreens. The pure white on the deep 
green is peculiarly pleasing to the eye of the Japanese, who use 
it as a popular element in their decorative art, in silver and bronze, 



200 



COREA. 



in embroidery, painting, and lacquer. The Coreans are equally 
happy in gazing upon the snow, as it rests on the deep shadows 
of the pine, or the delicate hue of the giant grass called bamboo. 
Near the large town of San-cho is a tower or house, built within 
view of a stream of water, which flows in winding course over the 
rocks, sparkling beneath the foliage. It has a scene-viewing room 
to which people resort to enjoy the " chikusetsu," or snow and 
bamboo effect. 




Map of Kang-wen Province. 



4 From an elevation near the town of Kan-nun, or Bay Hill, 
one may obtain a pretty view of the groves and shrubbery grow- 
ing upon the rocks. During the spring showers, when the rain 
falls in a fine mist, and the fresh vegetation appears in a new rich 
robe of green, the sight is very charming. 

5. Beneath the mound at An-an the river flows tranquilly, 
tinted by the setting sun. The sunsets at this place are of ex- 
quisite beauty. 

6. At the old castle town of Kan-nun, there is a room named 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 209 

" The Chamber between the Strong Fortress and the Tender Ver- 
dure." Here the valley is steep, and in the bosom of the stream 
of water lie " floating islands" — so called because they seem to 
swim on the surface of the water. 

7. Near Ko-sion, or High Fortress, is "Three Days Bay," to 
which lovers of the picturesque resort on summer mornings, to 
see the sun rise, and on autumnal evenings, to watch the moon- 
light effects. The fishers' boats gliding to and fro over the gleam- 
ing waters dehght the eye. 

8. At Tsu-sen is the " Eock-loving Chamber." Here, among 
some steep rocks, grow trees of fantastic form. The combination 
of rock-scenery and foliage make the charm of this place, to 
which scholars, artists, and travellers resort. In spring and au- 
tumn, literary parties visit the chamber dedicated to those who 
love the rocks. There, abandoning themselves to literary revels, 
they compose poems, hold scholarly reunions, or ramble about in 
search of health or pleasure. 

The people of Kang-wen are industrious and intelligent, vdth 
less energy of body than the southern provincials, but like their 
northern countrymen, they have the reputation of being bold, 
obstinate, and quarrelsome. In time of bad harvests or lax gov- 
ernment, " tramps " form bands of thirty or fifty, and roam the 
country, stealing food or valuables from the villages. Local thieves 
are sufficiently abundant. During the heavy snows of winter, 
people travel the mountain paths on snow-shoes, and in excep- 
tional places, cut tunnels under the snow for communication from 
house to house. Soldiers test their strength by pulling strong 
bows, and laborers by carrying heavy burdens on their shoulders. 
Strong men shoulder six hundred pounds of copper, or two bales 
of white rice (260 pounds each.) The women of this province are 
said to be the most beautiful in Corea. Even from ancient times, 
lovely damsels from this part of the peninsula, sent to the harem 
of the Chinese emperor, were greatly admired. Christianity has 
made little progress in Kang-wen, only a few tovms in the south- 
em part being marked with a cross on the French missionary map. 
In the most ancient times the Chinhan tribes occupied this por- 
tion of Corea. From the Christian era, until the tenth century, 
it was alternately held by Kokorai, or Korai, and by Shinra. 



14 



210 



CORBA. 



HAM-KIUNG, OR COMPLETE VIEW, 

Ham-kiung is that part of Corean territory which touches the 
boundary of JRussia. Only a few years ago all the neighbors along 
the land frontiers of Cho-sen were Chinese subjects. Now she 
has the European within rifle-shot of her shores. Only the Tu- 
men Eiver separates the Muscovites from the once hermits of the 
peninsula. The southern boundary of Eussia in Asia, which had 
been throvm farther south after every European war with China, 









^>i^ 

c 


vl-'s^ 


4 




y^ 


\ , r/Hun-<flnm 


Ccv 


^ 


Klon-wen \ 


Pt^ 


N •) 


/^\ V 


y/' ToMa-koiaU 


\\s 


/k_ PuHion f{ 


1 



Corean frontier facing Manchuria and Russia. 



touched Corea in 1858. What was before an elastic line, has in 
each instance become the Czar's "scientific frontier." By the 
supplementary treaty of Aigun, March 28, 1858, Count Mouravieff 
*' rectified " the far eastern line of the Czar's domain, by demand- 
ing and obtaining that vast and fertile territory lying south of the 
Amur Eiver, and between the GuK of Tartary and the river Usuri, 
having a breadth of one hundred and fifty miles. This remote, 
but very desirable, slice of Asia, is rich in gold and silk, coal and 
cotton, rice and tobacco. With energy and enterprise, the Eus- 
sian government at once encouraged emigration, placed steamers 
built in New York on the Usuri Eiver and Lake Hanka, laid out 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 



211 




212 COREA. 

the ports of Vladivostok, and Possiet, constructed a telegraph 
from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and enforced order 
among the semi-civilized and savage tribes. The name of the 
new Russian territory between the Amur River and the Sea of 
Okhotsk, is Primorskaia, with Vladivostok for the capital, which 
is finely situated on Peter the Great or Victoria Bay. Immense 
fortifications have been planned, and the place is to be made the 
Sebastopolof the Czar's Pacific possessions. This gigantic work 
was begun under the charge of the late Admiral Popoff, whose 
name has been given to the iron-turreted war vessels of which he 
was the inventor, and to a mountain in Central Corea. Possiet is 
within twenty-five miles of the Corean frontier. It is connected 
with Nagasaki by electric cable. In the event of a war between 
China and Russia, or even of Anglo-Russian hostilities, the Czar 
would most probably make Corea the basis of operations against 
China ; for Corea is to China as Canada is to the United States, or, 
as the people say, " the lips of China's teeth." 

Russia needs a coast line in the Pacific with seaports that are 
not frozen up in winter, and her ambition is to be a naval power. 
While England checks her designs in the Mediterranean, and in 
Europe, her desire is great and her need is greater to have this 
defenceless peninsula on her eastern borders. The Coreans know 
too well that the possession of their country by " Russia the rav- 
enous " is considered a necessity of the absorption policy of 
Peter the Great's successors. The Tumen River, which rises at 
the foot of the Ever- White Mountains and separates Corea from 
Russia, is about two hundred miles in length. It drains a moun- 
tainous and rainy country. Ordinarily it is shallow and quiet ; 
but in spring, or after heavy rains, and swollen by a great number 
of tributaries, its current becomes very turbulent and powerful. 
In winter it is frozen over during several months, and hence is 
easily crossed. Thousands of Coreans fleeing from famine, or 
from the oppression of government officials. Christians perse- 
cuted for their faith, criminals seeking to escape the clutches of 
the law, emigrants desirous of bettering their condition, have 
crossed this river and settled in Primorskaia, until they now 
number, in aU, about eight thousand. The majority of them are 
peasants from Ham-kiung, and know little of the southern parts 
of their country. There is, however, an "underground railroad" 
by which persecuted Christians can fly for refuge to Russian pro- 
tection. Their houses are built of stout timbers, wattled with 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 213 

cane, plastered with mud, and surrounded with a neat fencing 
of interlaced boughs. They cover their houses with strips of 
bamboo, well fastened down by thatching. The chimney is de- 
tached from the house, and consists of a hollow tree. Under the 
warmed floor is the usual system of flues, by which the house is 
kept comfortable in winter, and every atom of fuel utilized. Theii 
food is millet, com, venison, and beef. They pare and dry melon- 
like fruits, cutting them up in strips for winter use. They dress 
in the national color, white, using quilted cotton clothes. They 
make good use of bullock-carts, and smoke tobacco habitually. 
The national product — thick strong paper — is put to a great va- 
riety of uses, and a few sheets dressed with oil, serve as windows. 

Some of the Russian merchants have married Corean women, 
who seem to make good wives. Their offspring are carefully brought 
up in the Christian faith. Some of these Corean children have 
been sent to the American Home at Yokohama, where the ladies 
of the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America have given 
them an education in English. Through the Russian possessions, 
the Corean liberal, Kin Rinshio, made his escape. From this 
man the Japanese officials learned so much of the present state of 
the peninsula, and by his aid those in the War Department at 
Tokio were enabled to construct and publish so valuable a map 
of Corea, the accuracy of which astonishes his fellow-country- 
men. The Russians have taken the pains to educate the people in 
schools, and, judging from the faces and neat costumes, as seen in 
photographs taken on the spot, they enjoy being taught. The 
object of instruction is not only to civilize them as loyal subjects 
of the Czar, but also to convert them to the Russian form of Chris- 
tianity. In this work the priests and schoolmasters have had con- 
siderable success. There are but few Coreans north of the Tumen 
who cannot read and write, and the young men employed as 
clerks are good linguists. A number of them are fishermen, liv- 
ing near the coast. Most of the conveii;s to the Greek church 
are gathered at Vladivostok. 

So great has been the fear and jealousy felt by Corea toward 
Russia, that during the last two generations the land along the 
boundary river has been laid desolate. The banks were picketed 
with sentinels, and death was the penalty of crossing from shore 
to shore. Many interesting relics of the ancient greatness of 
Corea still abound in Manchuria and on Russian soil. Travellers 
have visited these ruins, now overgrown with large forest trees, 



214 COREA. 

and have given descriptions and measurements of them. One for. 
tification was found to cover six acres, with walls over thirty feet 
in height, protected by a moat and two outer ditches, with gate- 
ways guarded by curtains. In the ruins were elaborately carved 
fragments of columns, stone idols or statues, vdth bits of armor 
and weapons. Some of these now silent ruins have sustained 
famous sieges, and oDce blazed with watch-fires and echoed to 
battle-shouts. They are situated on spurs or ends of mountain 
chains, commanding plains and valleys, testifying to the knowl- 
edge of strategic skill possessed by their ancient builders. 

The Shan-yan Alin, range on range, visible from the Corean side 
of the river, are between eight thousand and twelve thousand feet 
high, and are snow-covered during most of the year. The name 
means Long-white, or Ever- White Mountains, the Chinese Shang- 
hai, meaning the same thing. Two of the peaks are named after 
Chinese emperors. Paik-tu, or White Head, is a sacred mountain 
famous throughout the country, and is the theme of enthusiastic 
description by Chinese, Japanese, and Corean writers, the former 
comparing it to a vase of white porcelain, with a scolloped rim. 
Its flora is mostly white, and its fauna are reputed to be white- 
haired, never injuring or injured by man. It is the holy abode of 
a white-robed goddess, who presides over the mountain. She is 
represented as a woman holding a child in her arms, after a le- 
gendary character, known in Corean lore and Chinese historical 
novels. Formerly a temple dedicated to her spirit was built, and 
for a long time was presided over by a priestess. The Corean 
Buddhists assign to this mountain, the home of Manchusri, one of 
their local deities, or incarnations of Buddha. Lying in the main 
group of the range, over eight thousand feet above the sea, is a 
vast lake surrounded by naked rocks, probably an extinct crater. 
Large portions of the mountain consist of white limestone, which, 
with its snow, from which it is free only during two months of the 
year, gives it its name. 

Another imposing range of mountains foUows the contour of 
the coast, and thus presents that lofty and magnificent front of 
forest-clad highland which strikes the admiration of navigators. 
Other conspicuous peaks are named by the natives. Continuous 
Virtue, The Peak of the Thousand Buddhas, Cloud-toucher, Sword 
Mountain, Lasting Peace, Heaven-reaching. 

Twenty-four rivers water and drain this mountainous province. 
The coast of Ham-kiung down to the fortieth parallel is devoid 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 



215 



of any important harbors. A glance at a foreign chart shows that 
numerous French, Russian, and English navigators have visited it, 
and gained precarious renown by sprinkling foreign names upon 
its capes and headlands. At the south, Yung-hing, or Brough- 
ton's Bay, so named by the gallant British captain in 1797, is 
well known for its fine harbors and its high tides. It contains 
a small archipelago, while the country around it is the most popu- 
lous and fertile portion of the province. Port Lazareflf, east of 




Southern part of Ham-kiung. 



Yon-fun, near the mouth of the Dungan River, and west of 
Virginie Bay, is well known. A large Japanese army under Kato 
occupied this territory during the year 1592. 

By the recent treaty vdth Japan, the port of Gensan, front- 
ing on the south of Broughton's Bay, was opened for trade and 
commerce, from May 1, 1880. Gensan lies near the thirty-ninth 
parallel of latitude. Near the shore is the island of Chotoku, and 
within the twenty-five mile circuit allowed to Japanese merchants 



216 COREA. 

for general travel, or free movement, is the old castle-town of To- 
kugen. The tomb of the founder of the reigning dynasty of Cho- 
sen is situated near the bay and is a highly venerated spot. As the 
dragon is in native ideas the type of all that is strong, mighty, 
and renowned, the place is named the " Eise of the Dragon." One 
of the high roads of the kingdom traverses the strip of land skirt- 
ing the sea from north to south throughout the province, touch- 
ing the water at certain places. The greater part of the people 
dwelling in the province live along this road. The interior, being 
a mass of mountains, is thinly inhabited, and the primeval for- 
ests are populated chiefly by tigers and other beasts of prey. 

In the current scouring the coast of Ham-kiung swim unnum- 
bered shoals of herring, ribbon fish, and other species inhabiting 
the open seas. After these follow in close pursuit schools of 
whales, which fatten on them as prey. Thousands of natives from 
the interior and the shore villages come down in the season and 
fish. They often stand knee-deep in the water, looking like long 
rows of the snowy heron of a rice-swamp, in their white clothes. 
They use a kind of catamaran or raft for fishing and for surf 
navigation, which is very serviceable. They sometimes hunt the 
whales at sea, or capture them in shoal water, driving them in 
shore till stranded. Sticking in the bodies of these huge crea- 
tures have been found darts and harpoons of European whalers. 
This chase of the herring by the whales was noticed, even in the 
extreme south of Corea, by Hamel, and by shipwrekced Dutch- 
men. Since the present year, Japanese whale-hunters have been 
engaged by Coreans to improve their methods of catching this 
huge sea-mammal. 

The capital city of this largest of the provinces, and the 
residence of the governor, is Ham-hung, situated near the fortieth 
parallel of north latitude. According to a native geography this 
province contains 103,200 houses, which gives a population varying 
from 309,600 to 516,000 souls. There are enrolled and capable of 
military service (on paper) 87,170 men. For administrative pur- 
poses the province is divided into divisions, the northern and the 
southern. There are fifteen walled cities. 

Formerly, and until the Bussians occupied the Primorskaia 
territory, an annual or bi-annual fair was held at the Corean city of 
Kion-wen, which lies close to the border. The Manchiu and Chi- 
nese merchants bartered tea, rice, pipes, gold, and furs for the 
Corean ginseng, hides, and household implements. Furs of a 



THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 217 

thousand sorts, cotton stuff, silks, artificial flowers, and choice 
woods, changed hands rapidly, the traffic lasting but two or three 
days, and sometimes only one day, from noon until sunset. Such 
was the bustle and confusion that these fairs often terminated in 
a free fight, which reminds one of the famous Donnybrook. One 
of the articles most profitable to the Coreans was their cast-off 
hair. Immense quantities cut from the heads of young persons, 
and especially by those about to be married, were and are still 
sold by the Chinese to lengthen out their "pig-tails" — that mark 
of subjection to their Manchiu conquerors. During the time of 
trade no Chinese or Manchiu was allowed to enter a Corean house, 
aU the streets and doorways being guarded by soldiers, who at the 
end of the fair drove out any lingering Chinese, who, if not soon 
across the border, were forced to go at the point of the spear. 
Any foreigner found inside the border at other seasons might be, 
and often was, ruthlessly murdered. 

The nearest town beyond the frontier, at which the Chinese 
merchants were wont to assemble, is Hun-chun. ^ This loophole of 
entrance into Corea, corresponded to Ai-chiu at the Yalu River in 
the west. As at the latter place, foreigners and Christian natives 
have attempted to penetrate the forbidden country at Kion-wen, 
but have been luisuccessful. 

An outhne of the poUtical history of the part of the peninsula 
now called Ham-kiung shows that many masters have in turn 
been its possessors. When the old kingdom of Cho-sen, which 
comprehended Liao Tung and that part of the peninsula between 
the Ta-tong and the Tumen Rivers, was broken up toward the end 
of the first century, the northern haK of what is now Ham-kiung was 
called Oju or Woju, the southern portion forming part of the little 
state of Wei, or Whi. These were both conquered by Kokorai, 
which held dominion until the seventh century, when it was 
crushed by the Chinese emperors of the Han dynasty, and the 
land fell under the sway of Shinra, whose borders extended in 
the ninth and tenth centuries, from Eastern Sea to the Tumen 
River. After Shinra, arose Korai and Cho-sen, the founders of 
both states being sprung from this region and of the hardy race 
inhabiting it. From very ancient times, the boundaries of this 
province, being almost entirely natural and consisting of mountain, 
river, and sea, have remained unchanged. 

^ Hun-chun is in Chinese Manchuria. The Russian possessions south of Vic- 
toria Bay extend but a few miles from the mouth of the Tumen. 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 

The title of majesty in Cho-sen is Hap-mun. In full robes of 
state the sovereign wears a silken garment, the gift of his suzerain, 
the Emperor of China. It is embroidered with dragons, the em- 
blems of regal power. His throne has riong or dragons sculptured 
around it. The steps leading to it are called "the staircase of 
jade." The cord which is used to tie criminals has a dragon's 
head at the ends, to signify that the officers act in obedience to 
the royal command. Chief of the regalia of Corean sovereignty 
is the Great Seal, the possession of which makes the holder the 
actual sovereign of Cho-sen. This seal, of which we shall hear 
again, seems to have been captured by the French in 1866. In 
time of war or public danger, the royal library, archives and re- 
galia are sent to Kang-wa Island for safety. Kidel wrote in 1866 : 

*' In another case, they foimd a marble tortoise, sculptured in 
perfect art, upon the pedestal of which was the great seal of state. 
This royal cartouche was to the simple Corean folk neither visible 
nor approachable, the possession of which has sufficed many times 
to transfer the royal authority and to terminate revolutions. It was 
the regalia of Corean sovereignty. The one which he saw was new 
and appeared never to have been used." 

The sovereign, in speaking of himself, uses the term " Hap- 
mun," which is the equivalent of the imperial "We " of Asiatic 
state documents. The word is somewhat similar to that employed 
by, or for, other rulers — ^Pharaoh, Sublime Porte, Mikado, all of 
which mean the Grand, Chief, or First, Gate of aU the gates in the 
country. The first character in Hap-mun is, however, different 
from that in Mikado, or Honorable Gate, but the hap is honorific. 
No other person in the land, official or private, is allowed to use 
this compound word in speech or writing as applying to anyone 
except the king. Even in transcribing the term hap, a stroke 
must be omitted out of respect to the august personage to whom 



THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 213 

alone it is applied. At his death, three cups of rice are set out in 
the households in memoriam. This ceremony must not be imi- 
tated for any other person. So also, if the character with which 
the name of the ruling emperor of China is written be found in that 
of a public person, a gateway, a palace or edifice in Seoul, the 
graphic sign must be temporarily changed, though the pronuncia- 
tion remains the same. This same system of graduated honors, 
of which, in Corea, the king is the culmination, slopes down to 
the common people, and is duly protected by law. 

The sovereign's person is hedged round with a divinity that has 
an antipathy to iron. This metal must ne^er touch his august body, 
and rather than have an abscess lanced, the king Cheng-jong, in 
1800, died from the effects of the disease. No ordinary mortal 
must touch him, and if by accident this is done, the individual 
must ever afterward wear a red silk cord. Notwithstanding such 
regnilated veneration for the Hap-mun's person, the royal harem 
numbers several hundred inmates, duly presided over by eunuchs. 
None but the king can drink out of a cup made of gold, and a 
heavy penalty is visited upon all who presume to do so. When out- 
side the palace, the three signs of the sovereign's power of life and 
death over his subjects, are the axe, sabre, and trident. The huge 
violet fan and red umbrella are likewise borne before him. The 
Chinese envoy is always escorted by soldiers bearing the three em- 
blems, and by a band of musicians. When the Hap-mun, or king, is 
in his minority, the queen, who is regent, sits behind a curtain in the 
council of ministers, and takes part in the discussions. When she 
is pregnant, the slaughter of beeves is prohibited during the space 
of three months. This is done in order "to honor heaven by 
abstinence," and may also be ordered to procure rain. Once every 
year, the queen entertains at her palace some worthy woman in 
humble life, who has reached the advanced age of eighty years. The 
king likewise shows favor to old men in the lower walks of life. 
Whenever an auspicious event happens, or good fortime befalls 
the kingdom, all the officials over seventy, and the common people 
over eighty years of age, are feasted at the expense of the gov- 
ernment. When the first male child is bom to the king, criminals 
are pardoned, and general festivity is observed. The birthdays of 
the royal pair are celebrated every year. The royal princes are 
supposed to have nothing whatever to do with politics, and any 
activity in matters of government on their part is jealously resented 
by the nobles, who form the political parties. 



220 COREA. 

The Eoyal Castle contains over three acres (15,202 square yards), 
surrounded by a wall twenty feet high, and formerly by a moat, 
now filled up, measuring fifty feet wide or less. It is crossed by 
stone bridges in several places. This castled palace is called tbe 
"Place of Government," and is divided into two parts called the 
"East and West " palace. The East, or Lower Palace, is the resi- 
dence of the king and is so called because situated on level land. 
The Western palace is used for the reception of the Chinese am- 
bassadors. The gates of the outer city proper, and inner city, or 
palace, are named in high-sounding phrase, such as " Beneficent 
Eeception," " Exalted Politeness," "Perfect Change," "Entrance 
of Virtue," and the throne-room is styled "The Hall of the Throne 
of the Humane Government." The Chinese ambassador of 1866 
spent the night in that part of the royal residence called " The 
Palace Eeserved for the South," — "the south" here evidently re- 
ferring to the imperial favor, or the good graces, of the emperor. 

A marked difference concerning "the freedom of the city" is 
noticed in the relative treatment of the two embassies. While the 
entire body of Coreans, dignitaries, servants, merchants, and cart- 
men enter Peking, and all circulate freely in the streets among the 
people, the Chinese envoy to Seoul, must leave his suite at the 
frontier, and proceed to the capital wdth but a few servants, and 
while there dwell in seclusion. After the long and rough journey 
through Shin-king and Corea, the Chinese envoy in 1866 stayed less 
than three days in Seoul, and most of the time in-doors. The Jap- 
anese who, in 1646, were feasted in some part of the Eastern palace, 
describe it as being handsomely furnished, with the walls gilded 
and painted with landscapes, beasts, birds, and flowers, with artis- 
tic effects in gold-dust and leaf. The royal family live each in 
separate buildings, those above the ninth degree of relationship 
reside inside the enclosure, all others live beyond the wall in the 
city. When the wife of the king has a child, she dwells apart in 
a separate building. The queen is selected from among the old 
and most loyal families of the nobility. The palace pages, who 
attend the king day and night, number thirty. There are also 
three hundred court ladies, and eunuchs are among the regularly- 
appointed officers of the court. The royal archives and library- 
form an interesting portion of the royal residence. Part of this 
library, when removed to Kang-wa in 1866, was captured by the 
French. Bishop Ridel wrote of it, " The library is very rich, 
consisting of two or three thousand books printed in Chinese. 



THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 221 

with numerous illustrations upon beautiful paper, all well labeled, 
for the most part in many volumes hooped together with copper 
bands, the covers being of green or crimson silk. I notice among 
other things the ancient history of Corea in sixty volumes. What 
was most curious of all was a book formed of tablets of marble, 
with characters in gold encrusted in the marble, folding upon one 
another like the leaves of a screen, upon hinges of gilded copper, 
and each tablet protected by a cushion of scarlet silk, the whole 
placed in a handsome casket made of copper, which was in its 
turn enclosed in a box of wood painted red, with chased orna- 
ments in gilt copper. These square tablets formed a volume of a 
dozen pages. They contain, as some say, the moral laws of the 
country, but according to others, whose opinion is more probable, 
the honors accorded the kings of Corea by the Emperor of China. 
The Coreans set great store by it." 

A custom, similar to the old "curfew" of England prevails in 
the capital. The great city bell is struck at sunset, after which 
male citizens are not allowed to go out of their houses even to 
visit their neighbors. If such nocturnal prowlers are caught, they 
run the risk of receiving the bastinado on their legs. At eight 
o'clock another three strokes are given on the bell. At the hours 
of midnight, and at two and four a.m. the drum is struck, and the 
brass cymbals sounded. At these signals the watchmen or guards 
of the palace are relieved. The night-watch consists of ten reliefs 
of eighteen each. Twenty stand guard at midnight, thirty at two 
A.M., twenty at four a.m., and ten at six a.m. There are also extra 
reliefs with their officers ready. The sentinels change after giving 
the pass- word. The military garrison of the city is divided into 
five portions, or four in addition to the household or palace 
troops. This is the modern form of the old division of Kokorai, 
into five tribes or clans. 

There are several noted holidays, on which the curfew law is 
suspended, and the people are allowed to be out freely at night. 
These are the first and the last day of the year, the fourteenth and 
fifteenth day of the first month, and the fifteenth of August. 

Even under a despotism there are means by which the people 
win and enjoy a certain measure of liberty. The monarch hears 
the complaints of his subjects. Close communication between the 
palace and populace is kept up by means of the pages employed 
at the court, or through officers, who are sent out as the king's 
spies aU over the country. An E-sa, or commissioner, who is to 



222 COREA. 

be sent to a distant province to ascertain the popular feeling, or 
to report the conduct of certain officers, is also called " The Mes- 
senger on the Dark Path." He receives sealed orders from the 
king, which he must not open till beyond the city walls. Then, 
without even going to his own house, he must set out for his des- 
tination, the government providing his expenses. He bears the 
seal of his commission, a silver plate having the figure of a horse 
engraved on it. In some cases he has the power of hfe and death 
in his hands. Yet, even the Messenger of the Dark Path is not 
free from espionage, for after him forthwith follows his "double" 
— the yashi or Night Messenger, who reports on the conduct of 
the royal inspector and also on the affairs of each province 
through which he passes. The whereabouts of these emissaries 
are rarely discoverable by the people, as they travel in strict dis- 
guise, and unknown. This system corresponds almost exactly to 
that of the ometsuke (eye-appliers), for many centuries in use in 
Japan, but abolished by the mikado's government at the revolu- 
tion of 1868. It was by means of these E-sa or spies that many 
of the Corean Christians of rank were marked for destruction. 
The system, though abominable in free countries, is yet an excel- 
lent medium between the throne and the subject, and serves as a 
wholesome check on official rapine and cruelty. 

The king rarely leaves the palace to go abroad in the city or 
country. When he does, it is a great occasion which is previously 
announced to the public. The roads are swept clean and guarded 
to prevent traffic or passage while the royal cortege is moving. 
All doors must 1 3 shut and the owner of each house is obliged to 
kneel before his threshold with a broom and dust-pan in his hand 
as emblems of obeisance. All windows, especially the upper ones, 
must be sealed with slips of paper, lest some one should look 
down upon his majesty. Those who think they have received 
unjust punishment enjoy the right of appeal to the sovereign. 
They stand by the roadside tapping a small flat drum of hide 
stretched on a hoop like a battledore. The king as he passes 
hears the prayer or receives the written petition held in a split 
bamboo. Often he investigates the grievance. If the complaint 
is groundless the petitioner is apt to lose his head. The proces- 
sion for pleasure or a journey, as it leaves the palace, is one of the 
grandest spectacles the natives ever witness. His body-guard and 
train amount to many thousand persons. There are two sedan 
chairs made exactly alike, and in which of them the king is riding 



THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 223 

210 one knows except the highest ministers. They must never be 
turned round, but have a door to open at both ends. The music 
used on such occasions is — to a Corean ear — of a quiet kind, and 
orders are given along the line by signals made with pennons. In 
case of sudden emergencies, when it is neccessary to convey an 
order from the rear to the front or far forward of the line, the 
message is sent by means of an arrow, which, with the writing at- 
tached, is shot from one end of the line to the other. 

Five caparisoned horses with embroidered saddles precede the 
royal sedan. The great dragon-flag, which is about fourteen feet 
square, mounted in a socket and strapped on the back of a strong 
fresh horse — with four guy ropes held by footmen, like banner- 
string boys in a parade — forms the most conspicuous object in the 
procession. Succession to the throne is at the pleasure of the 
sovereign, who may nominate his legitimate son, or any one of his 
natural male offspring, or his cousin, or uncle, as he pleases. A 
son of the queen takes precedence over other sons, but the male 
child of a concubine becomes king when the queen is childless, 
which, in Corean eyes, is virtually the case when she has daugh- 
ters only. Since the founding of the present dynasty in 1392, 
there have been twenty-nine successors to the founder, among 
whom we find nephews, cousins, or younger sons, in several 
instances. Four were kun, princes, or king's son only, and not 
successors in the royal line. They are not styled wang, or 
kings, but only kun, or princes, in the official light. One of 
these four kun, degraded from the throne, was banished after 
eleven years, and another was served in like manner after 
fourteen years, reign. The heir to the throne holds the rank 
of wang (Japanese 0), king, while the younger sons are kun, 
princes. From 1392 to 1882, the average reign of the twenty 
sovereigns of Corea who received investiture is very nearly six- 
teen and a half years. 



CHAPTEE XXY. 

POLITICAL PARTIES. 

During the past three centuries the nobles have been steadily 
gaining political power, or rather we might say have been regain- 
ing their ancient prestige at court. They have compelled the 
royal princes to take the position of absolute political neutrality, 
and the policy of the central government is dictated exclusively 
by them. Those who hold no office are often the most powerful 
in influence with their own party. 

The origin of the political parties, which have played such an 
influential part in the history of modern Corea, is referred to about 
the time of the discovery of America. During the reign of Sien- 
chong (1469-1494), the eleventh sovereign of the house of Ni, a 
dispute brokp out between two of the most powerful of the nobles. 
The court had bestowed upon one of them a high dignity, to which 
his rival laid equal claim. As usual in feudalism everywhere, the 
famiUes, relatives, retainers, and even servants, of either leader 
took part in the quarrel. The king prudently kept himself neutral 
between the contending factions, which soon formed themselves 
into organized parties under the names of *' Eastern " and "West- 
ern." Later on, from a cause equally trivial to an alien eye, two 
other parties formed themselves under the names " Southern " 
and "Northern." Soon the Easterners joined themselves to the 
Southerners, and the Northerners, who were very numerous, split 
into two divisions, called the Great North and the Little North. 
In one of those unsuccessful palace intrigues, called conspiracies, 
the Great North party was mixed up with the plot, and most of its 
members were condemned to death. The survivors hastened to 
range themselves under the banner of the Little North. The 
next reaction which arranged the parties on new lines, occurred 
during the reign of Suk-chong (1676-1720), and well illustrates 
that fanaticism of pedantry to which the literary classes in time 
of peace formerly devoted their energies. The father of a young 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 225 

noble named Tun, who belonged to the Western party, having 
died, the young man composed an epitaph. His tutor, an influen- 
tial man of letters, not liking the production of his pupil, pro- 
posed another. Unable to agree upon the proper text, a lively con- 
troversy arose, and out of a Uterary acorn sprang up a mighty oak 
of poUtics. The Western party split into the Sho-ron, and No-ron, 
in which were found the adherents of the pupil and master. A 
free translation of the correlative terms sho and no, would be 
"Old Corea " and "Young Corea," or Conservative and Progres- 
sive, or radical. There were now four political parties. 

The Shi-seik, or " the four parties," are still in existence, and 
receive illustration better from French than from British politics. 
Every noble in the realm is attached to one or the other of the 
four parties, though "trimmers " are not unknown. These Tuhil- 
poki, or "right and left men," are ever on the alert for the main 
chance, and on the turn of the political vane prom.ptly desert to 
the winning side. 

However trivial the causes which led to their formation, as 
Western eyes see, the objects kept in view by the partisans are 
much the same as those of parties in European countries and in 
the United States. Nominally the prime purpose of each faction 
is to advance the interests of the country. Actual and very power- 
ful motives have reference to the spoils of office. Each party en- 
deavors to gain for its adherents as many of the high appointments 
and dignities as possible. Their rallying-point is around the heirs 
apparent, or possible, to the throne. When a strong and healthy 
king holds the reins of power, political activity may be cool. 
When the sovereign dies and the succession is uncertain, when a 
queen or royal concubine is to be chosen, when high ministers of 
state die or resign, the Corean political furnace is at full blast. 
When king Suk-chong was reigning in 1720, having no son to 
succeed him, the four parties coalesced into two, the Opposition 
and the Court or royal party. The former supported in this case 
one who proved the successful candidate, a brother of the king ; 
the latter party urged the claims of an expected heir to the reign- 
ing king, which, however, was not born, as the king died childless. 
To secure the throne to their nominee, the brother of the childless 
king, the opposition secretly despatched a courier to Peking to 
obtain the imperial investiture. The other party sent assassins to 
waylay or overtake the courier, who was murdered before he had 
crossed the frontier. 
15 



226 COREA. 

Yeng-chong, the nominee of the Opposition, mounted the 
throne after the death of his brother, and reigned from 1724 to 
1776. He was an able ruler, and signalized his reign by abolish- 
ing many of the legal tortures until then practised, especially the 
branding of criminals. Yet personally he was cruel and unscrupu- 
lous. Public rumor credited him with having found a road to 
power by means of a double crime. By the use of various drugs 
he made it impossible for his brother to have an heir, after which 
he poisoned him. 

Stung by these reports, he began, as soon as he was made sov- 
ereign, to send to the block numbers of the opposite party whom 
he knew to be his enemies. Some years after, his eldest son hav- 
ing died, he nominated his second son, Sato, to be his heir, and 
associated him with himself in the government of the kingdom. 
This young and accomplished prince endeavored to make his 
father forget his bitter hatred against the Si-pai party, to pro- 
claim general amnesty, and to follow out a frank policy of recon- 
cihation. The king, irritated by his son's reproaches, and hounded 
on by his partisans, resolved to put the prince out of the way. By 
the royal command a huge chest of wood was made, into which 
the young prince was ordered to sleep while living. The ponder- 
ous lid was put on during one of his slumbers and sealed with 
the royal seal. They then covered this sarcophagus with leaves 
and boughs, so that in a short time the young prince was smoth- 
ered. This horrible crime served only to exasperate the party of 
the prince, and they demanded that his name should be enrolled 
in the list of sovereigns. Their opponents refused, and this ques- 
tion is still a burning one. The king's defenders, to this day de- 
cline to rehabilitate the character of the smothered prince. The 
others demand that historic justice be done. Though other ques- 
tions have since arisen, of more immediate moment, this particu- 
lar moot point makes its distinct hue in the opposing colors of 
Corean politics. This, however, does not take on the features of 
an hereditary feud, for oftentimes in the same family, father and 
son, or brothers may hold varying views on this historical dispute, 
nor does it aifect marriage between holders of diverse views. The 
Corean E-omeo and Juliet may woo and wed without let or dan- 
ger. In general, it may be said that the Piek-pai are radical and 
fiery, the Si-pai are conservative and conciliatory. 

Cheng-chong, who ruled from 1776 to 1800, a wise, moderate, 
and prudent prince, and a friend of learning, favored the men of 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 227 

merit among the Southern Si-pai, and is also noted for having 
revised the code of laws. 

Among the more radical of the partisans, the object in view is 
not only to gain for their adherents the public offices, but also to 
smite their rivals hip and thigh, and prevent their getting appoint- 
ments. Hence the continual quarrels and the plots, which often 
result in the death of one or other of the leaders. Assassination 
and murderous attacks are among the means employed, while 
to supplant their enemies the king is besought to order them to 
death or exile. Concessions are made by the dominant party to 
the other only to avoid violent outbreaks, and to keep the peace. 
With such a rich soil for feuds, it is not wonderful that Corea is 
cursed with elements of permanent disturbance like those in 
mediaeval Scotland or Italy. As each of the noble families have 
many retainers, and as the feuds are hereditary, the passions of 
human nature have full sway. AU manner of envy and malice, 
with all uncharitableness flourish, as in a thicket of interlacing 
thorns. The Southern and No-ron parties have always been the 
most numerous, powerful, and obstinate. Between them mar- 
riages do not take place, and the noble who in an intrigue with 
one of his enemies loses caste, his honors, or his life, hands down 
to his son or his nearest relative his demand for vengeance. Often 
this sacred duty is associated with an exterior and visible pledge. 
He may give to his son, for instance, a coat which he is never to 
take off until revenge is had. The kinsman, thus clad with ven- 
geance as with a garment, must wear it, it may be until he dies, 
and then put it upon his child with the same vow. It is not rare 
to see noblemen clad in rags and tatters during two or three gen- 
erations. Night and day these clothes call aloud to the wearer, 
reminding him of the debt of blood which he must pay to appease 
the spirits of his ancestors. 

In Corea, not to avenge one's father is to be disowned, to 
prove that one is illegitimate and has no right to bear the family 
name, it is to violate, in its fundamental point, the national reli- 
gion, which is the worship of ancestors. If the father has been 
put to death under the forms of law, it behooves that his enemy 
or his enemy's son should die the same death. If the father has 
been exiled, his enemy's exile must be secured. If the parent has 
been assassinated, in like manner must his enemy fall. In these 
cases, public sentiment applauds the avenger, as fulfilling the holy 
dictates of piety and religion. 



228 COREA. 

The pretext of accusation most often employed by the rival 
factions is that of conspiracy against the life of the king. Peti- 
tions and false evidence are multiplied and bribery of the court 
ministers is attempted. If, as is often the case, the first petition- 
ers are thrown in jail, beaten, or condemned to mulct or exile, 
the pai-tisans assess the fine among themselves and pay it, or 
manage by new methods, by the favor or venality of the court 
ministers, or the weakness of the king, at last to compass their ends, 
when those of the vanquished party are ousted from office, while 
the victors use and abuse their positions to enrich themselves and 
ruin their enemies, until they in their turn are supplanted. 

It is no wonder that a Corean liberal visiting in Tokio, in 
1882, declared to a Japanese officer his conviction that Corea's 
dfficulties in the way of national progress were greater than those 
of which Japan had rid herself, mighty as these had been. By 
the revolutions of 1868, and later, the ripened fruits of a century 
of agitation and the presence of foreigners, Japan had purged 
from her body poHtic feudalism and caste, emancipating herself 
at once from the thrall of the priest and the soldier ; but Corea, 
with her feudalism, her court intrigues, her Confucian bigotry, 
and the effete products of ages of seclusion and superstition has 
even a more hopeless task to attempt. The bearing of these 
phases of home politics will be further displayed when the new 
disturbing force of Christianity enters to furnish a lover to am- 
bition and revenge, as well as to affection and philanthropy. 

A native caricature, which was published about a generation 
ago, gives even a foreigner a fair idea of the relative position of 
each party at that epoch. At a table gorgeously furnished, a No- 
ron is seated at his ease, disposing of the bountiful fare. A Sho- 
ron seated beside him, yet in the rear, graciously performs the 
office of servant, receiving part of the food as reward for his at- 
tendance. The Little North, seeing that the viands are not for 
him, is also seated, but with a more sedate and serious visage. 
Last of all the Southern, covered with rags, keeps far in the rear, 
behind the No-ron, who does not notice him, while he, in vexation, 
grinds his teeth and shakes his fist like a man who means to take 
burning vengeance. Such was the political situation before 1850, 
as some native wit pictured it for the amusement of the Seoulians. 

It requires a ruler of real ability to be equal to the pressure 
brought upon him by the diverse and hostile political parties. 
Nominally sovereign of the country, he is held in check by pow- 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 229 

erful nobles intrenclied in privileges hoary with age, and backed 
by all the reactionary influences of feudalism. The nobles are the 
powerful middle term in the problem of Corean politics, who con- 
trol both king and commons. The nobles have the preponderance 
of the government patronage, and fill the official positions with 
their liegemen to an extent far beyond what the theory of the 
law, as illustrated in the literary examinations, allows them. A 
native caricature thus depicts the situation. Cho-sen is repre- 
sented as a human being, of whom the king is the head, the 
nobles the body, and the people the legs and feet. The breast 
and belly are full, while both head and lower limbs are gaunt and 
shrunken. The nobles not only drain the life-blood of the peo- 
ple by their rapacity, but they curtail the royal prerogative. The 
nation is suffering from a congestion, verging upon a dropsical 
condition of over-officialism. 

The disease of Corea's near neighbor, old Japan, was like- 
wise a surplus of government and an excess of official patronage, 
but the body poHtic was purged by revolution. The obstructions 
between the throne and the people were cleared away by the re- 
moval of the sho-gunate and the feudal system. Before the 
advent of foreigners, national unity was not the absolute necessity 
which it became the instant that aUens fixed their dwelling on the 
soil. Now, the empire of the mikado rejoices in true poHtical 
unity, and has subjects in a strong and not over-meddlesome gov- 
ernment. The people are being educated in the rudiments of 
mutual obHgations — their rights as well as their duties. The 
mikado himself took the oath of 1868, and his own hand shaped 
the august decree of 1881, which will keep his throne unshaken, 
not because it was won by the bows and arrows of his divine an- 
cestors, but because it will rest broad-based upon the peoples' 
will. So in Cho-sen the work of the future for intelligent patriots 
is the closer union of king and people, the curtailment of the 
power of the nobles, and the excision of feudahsm. Already, to ac- 
complish this end, there are Coreans who are ready to die. During 
the last decade, the pressure from Japan, the jealousy of China, 
the danger from Eussia, the necessity, at first shrunk from and 
then yielded to, of making treaties with foreign nations, has altered 
the motives and objects of Corean politics. Old questions have 
fallen out of sight, and two great parties, Progressionists and Ob- 
structionists, or Radical and Conservative, have formed for the solu- 
tion of the problems thrust upon them by the nineteenth century. 



CHAPTER XXYL 

ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OP GOVERNMENT. 

Next in authority to the king are the three chong or high min- 
isters. The chief of these (Chen-kun) is the greatest dignitary in 
the kingdom, and in time of the minority, inability, or imbecility 
of the king, wields royal authority in fact if not in name. Another 
term apphed to him when the king is unable to govern, is " Foim- 
dation-stone Minister," upon whom the king leans and the state 
/•ests as a house upon its foundation-stone. The title of Tai-wen- 
kun, which suggests that of the "Tycoon" of Japan, seems to 
have been a special one intended for the emergency. It was given 
to the Regent who is the father of the present King, and who 
ruled with nearly absolute power from 1863 to 1874, when the 
king reached his majority. In the troubles in Seoul in July, 1882, 
his title, written in Japanese as Tai-in kun, became familiar to 
western newspapers. 

After the king, and the three prime ministers, come the six 
ministries or boards of government, the heads of which rank 
next to the three chong or ministers forming the Supreme Council. 
In the six departments, the heads are called pan-cho, and these are 
assisted by two other associates, the cham-pan, or substitutes, and 
the cham-e, or counsellor. These four grades and twenty-one 
dignitaries constitute the royal council of dai-jin (great miaisters), 
though the actual authority is in the supreme council of the three 
chong. The six boards, or departments of the government, are : 
1, Office and Public Employ ; 2, Finance ; 3, Ceremonies ; 4, War ; 
5, Justice ; 6, Public Works. The heads of these tribunals make 
a daily report of all affairs within their province, but refer all 
matters of importance to the Supreme Council. There are also 
three chamberlains, each having his assistants, who record every 
day the acts and words of the king. A daily government gazette, 
called the Cho-po, is issued for information on official matters. 
The general cast and method of procedure in the court and gov- 
ernment is copied after the great model in Peking. 



ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT. 231 

Each of the eight provinces is under the direction of a kam-sa, 
or governor. The cities are divided into six classes {yin, mu,fu, 
hi, ling, and hilu), and are governed by officers of corresponding 
rank. The towns are given in charge of the petty magistrates, 
there being twelve ranks or dignities in the official class. In 
theory any male Corean able to pass the government examinations 
is eligible to office, but the greater number of the best positions 
are secured by nobles and their friends. 

From the sovereign to the beggar, the gate, both figura- 
tively and actually, is very prominent in the pubUc economy and 
in family relationships. A great deal of etiquette is visible in the 
gates. At the entrance to the royal palace are, or were formerly, 
two huge effigies, in wood, of horses, painted red. Only high 
officials can pass these mute guardians. All persons riding past 
the palace must dismount and walk. To the houses of men of 
rank there are usually two, sometimes three, gates. The magis- 
trate himself enters by the largest, his parents and nearer friends 
by the eastern, and servants by the west or smallest. When a 
visitor of equal grade calls upon an officer or noble, the host must 
come all the way to the great or outer gate to receive, him, and do 
likewise on dismissing him. If he be of one degree lower rank, 
the host comes only to the outside of the middle gate. If of third 
or fourth rank, the caller is accompanied only to the space inside 
the middle gate. The man of fifth and sixth rank finds that eti- 
quette has so tapered off that the lord of the mansion walks only 
to the piazza. In front of a magistrate's office, at the gateway, are 
ranged the symbols of authority, such as spears and tridents. 
The gates are daily opened amid the loud cries of the underlings, 
and their opening and closing with a vocal or instrumental 
blast is a national custom, illustrated as well at the city as at the 
office. The porters who close them at sunset and open them at 
dawn execute a salvo on their trumpets, often lasting a quarter 
of an hour. This acoustic devastation, so distressing to foreign 
ears, is considered good music to the native tympanum. 

In sitting, the same iron tongue upon the buckle of custom 
holds each man to his right hole in the social strap. People of 
equal rank sit so that the guest faces to the east and the host to 
the west. In ordinary easy style, the visitor's nose is to the south, 
as he sits eastward of his host. A commoner faces north. In 
social entertainments, after the yup, or bows with the head 
and hands bent together, have been made, wine is sipped or 



232 COREA. 

drunk three or five times, and then follows what the Coreans call 
music. 

The sumptuary laws of the kingdom are peculiar, at many points 
amusing to occidentals. To commit pem-ram is to violate these 
curious regulations. What may be worn, or sat upon, is solemnly 
dictated by law. Nobles sit on the kan-kio, or better kind of 
chairs. Below the third rank, officers rest upon a bench made of 
ropes. Chairs, however, are not common articles of use, nor in- 
tended to be such. At entertainments for the aged, in time of 
rich harvests, local feasts, archery tournaments, and on public occa- 
sions, these luxuries are oftener used. In short, the chair seems 
to be an article of ceremony, rather than a constant means of use 
or comfort. 

Only men above the third rank are allowed to put on silk. 
Petty officials must wear cotton. Merchants and farmers may not 
imitate official robes, but don tighter or more economical coats 
and trowsers. A common term for officials is "blue clouds," in 
reference to their blue-tinted garments. To their assistants, the 
people apply the nickname, not sarcastic, but honorable, of " crooked 
backs," because they always bend low in talking to their employers. 

The magistrates lay great stress on the trifles of etiquette, and 
keep up an immense amount of fuss and pomp to sustain their 
dignity, in order to awe the common folks. Whenever they move 
abroad, their servants cry out " chii-wa," " chii-wa," " get down 
off your horse," "get down off your horse," to riders in sight. 
The Il-san, or large banner or standard in the form of an um- 
brella, is borne at the head of the line. To attempt to cross one 
of their processions is to be seized and punished, and anyone re- 
fusing to dismount, or who is slow about sHpping off his horse, is 
at once arrested, to be beaten or mulcted. When permission is 
given to kill an ox, the head, hide, and feet usually become the 
perquisites of the magistrate or his minions. The exuberant vocab- 
ulary in Corean, for the various taxes, fines, mulcts, and squeezes 
of the understrappers^ of the magistrate, in gross and in detail, 
chief and supplementary, testify to the rigors and expenses of 
being governed in Cho-sen. 

Overreaching magistrates, through whose injustice the people 
are goaded into rebellion, are sometimes punished. It seems that 
one of the penalties in ancient times was that the culpable official 
should be boiled in oil. Now, however, the condemned man is 
exiled, and only rarely put to death, while a commutation of justice 



ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT. 233 

— equivalent to being burned in effigy — is made by a pretended 
boiling in oil. Good and upright magistrates are often remem- 
bered by mok-pi, or inscribed columns of wood, erected on the 
pubhc road by the grateful people. In many instances, this testi- 
monial takes the form of sculptured stone. A number of the pub- 
lic highways are thus adorned. These, with the tol-pi, or monu- 
mental bourne, which marks distances or points out the paths to 
places of resort, are interesting features of travel in the peninusla, 
and more pleasant to the horseman than the posts near temples 
and offices on which one may read "Dismount." At the funeral 
of great dignitaries of the realm, a life-sized figure of a horse, 
made of bamboo, dragged before the coffin, is burned along with 
the clothes of the deceased, and the ashes laid beside his remains. 

As the magistrates are literary men, their official residences 
often receive poetic or suggestive names, which, in most cases, re- 
flect the natural scenery surrounding them. "Little Flowery 
House," "Rising Cloud," "Sun-greeting," "Sheet of Resplen- 
dent Water," " Water- that-slides-as-straight-as-a-sword Dwelling," 
" Gate of Lapis-lazuli," " Mansion near the Whirlpool," are some 
of these names, while, into the composition H)f others, the Morn- 
ing-star, the Heaven-touching, the Cave-spirit, and the Changing- 
cloud Mountain, or the FalHng-snow Cataract may enter. Passion- 
ately fond of nature, the Corean gentleman will erect a tablet in 
praise of the scenery that charms his eye. One such reads, " The 
beauty of its rivers, and of its mountains, make this district the 
first in the country." 

If, as the French say, " Paris is France," then Seoul is Corea. 
An apparently disproportionate interest centres in the capital, if 
one may judge from the vast and varied vocabulary relating to 
Seoul, its people and things, which differentiate all else outside its 
wall. Three thousand official dignitaries are said to reside in the 
capital, and only eight hundred in all the other cities and prov- 
inces. Seoul is "the city," and aU the rest of the peninsula is "the 
country." A provincial having cultivated manners is called " a 
man of the capital." " Capital and province " means the realm. 

The rule of the local authorities is very minute in all its rami- 
fications. The system of making every five houses a social unit 
is universal. When a crime is committed, it is easy to locate the 
group in which the offender dwells, and responsibility is fixed at 
once. Every subject of the sovereign except nobles of rank, must 
possess a passport or ticket testifying to his personality, and aU 



234 COREA. 

must " show their tickets" on demand. For the people, this cer- 
tificate of identity is a piece of branded or inscribed wood, for the 
soldiers of horn, for the literary class and government officials of 
bone. Often, the tablet is in halves, the individual having one- 
half, and the government keeping its tally. The people who can- 
not read or write have their labels carefully tied to their clothing. 
When called upon to sign important documents, or bear witness 
on trial, they make a blood-signature, by rudely tracing the signs 
set before them in their own blood. The name, residence of the 
holder, and the number of the group of houses in which he lives, 
are branded or inscribed on the ho-pai, or passport. 

The actual workings of Corean justice wiU be better under- 
stood when treating of Christianity — an element of social life 
which gave the pagan tribunals plenty of work. Civil matters are 
decided by the ordinary civil magistrate, who is judge and jury at 
once ; criminal cases are tried by the military commandant. Very 
important cases are referred to the governor of the province. The 
highest court of appeal is in the capital. Cases of treason and re- 
bellion, and charges against high dignitaries, are tried in the 
capital before a special tribunal instituted by the king. 

The two classes of assistants to the magistrate, who are called 
respectively hai-seih and a-chen, act as constables or sheriffs, 
police messengers, and jailers. French writers term them " pre- 
torians" and "satellites." These men have practically the admin- 
istration of justice, and the details and spirit of local authority are 
in their power. The hai-seik, or constables, form a distinct class 
in the community, rarely intermarrying with the people, and 
handing down their offices, implements, and arts from father to 
son. The a-chen, who are the inferior police, jailers, and torturers, 
are from the very lowest classes, and usually of brutal life and 
temper. 

The vocabulary of torture is sufficiently copious to stamp Cho- 
sen as still a semi-civilized nation. The inventory of the court and 
prison comprises iron chains, bamboos for beating the back, a 
paddle-shaped implement for inflicting blows upon the buttocks, 
switches for whipping the calves till the flesh is ravelled, ropes 
for saving the flesh and bodily organs, manacles, stocks, and 
boards to strike against the knees and shin-bones. Other punish- 
ments are suspension by the arms, tying the hands in front of the 
knees, between which and the elbows is inserted a stick, while the 
human baU is rolled about. An ancient but now obsolete mode 



ORGANIZATION AND METHOD^, OF GOVERNMENT. 235 

of torture was to tie the four limbs of a man to the horns of as 
many oxen, and then to madden the beasts by fire, so that they 
tore the victim to fragments. The punishment of beating with 
paddles often leaves scars for life, and causes ulcers not easily 
healed. One hundred strokes cause death in most cases, and 
many die under forty or fifty blows. For some crimes the knees 
and shin-bones are battered. A woman is allowed to have on one 
garment, which is wetted to make it cling to the skin and in- 
crease the pain. The chief of the lictors, or pubHc spanker, is 
called du-kio. With the long, flexible handle swung over his 
head, he pUes the resounding blows, planting them on the bare 
skin just above the knee-joint, the victim being held down by four 
gaolers. The method of correction is quite characteristic of pa- 
ternal government, and is often inflicted upon the people openly 
and in public, at the whim of the magistrate. The bastinado 
was formerly, like hundreds of other customs common to both 
countries, in vogue in Japan. As in many other instances, this has 
survived in the less civihzed nation. 

When an offender in the military or literary Class is sentenced 
to death, decapitation is the rather honorable method employed. 
The executioner uses either a sort of native iron hatchet-sword or 
cleaver, or one of the imported Japanese steel-edged blades, 
which have an excellent reputation in the peninsula. 

Undoubtedly the severity of the Corean code has been miti- 
gated since Hamel's time. According to his observations, husbands 
usually kiUed their wives who had committed adultery. A wife 
murdering her husband was buried to the shoulders in the earth 
at the road side, and all might strike or mutilate her with axe or 
sword. A serf who murdered his master was tortured, and a 
thief might be trampled to death. The acme of cruelty was pro- 
duced, as in old Japan, by pouring vinegar down the criminal's 
throat, and then beating him tiU he burst. The criminal code 
now in force is, in the main, that revised and pubhshed by the 
king in 1785, which greatly mitigated the one formerly used. One 
disgraceful, but not very severe, mode of correction is to tie a 
drum to the back of the offender and publicly proclaim his trans- 
gression, while the drum is beaten as he walks through the streets. 
Amid many improvements on the old barbarous system of aggra- 
vating the misery of the condemned, there still survives a dis- 
graceful form of capital punishment, in which the cruelty takes on 
the air of savage refinement. The cho-reni-to-ta appears only in 



236 CORBA. 

extreme cases. The criminal's face is smeared witli chalk, his 
hands are tied behind him, a gong is tied on his back, and an 
arrow is thrust through either ear. The executioner makes the 
victim march round before the spectators, while he strikes the 
gong, crying out, " This fellow has committed [adultery, murder, 
treason, etc.]. Avoid his crime." The French missionaries exe- 
cuted near Seoul were all put to death in this barbarous manner. 

Officials often receive furloughs to return home and visit their 
parents, for filial piety is the supreme virtue in Chinese Asia. 
The richest rewards on earth and brightest heaven hereafter await 
the filial child. Curses and disgrace in this life and the hottest 
hell in the world hereafter are the penalties of the disobedient or 
neglectful child. The man who strikes his father is beheaded. 
The parricide is burned to death. Not to mourn long and faith- 
fully, by retiring from office for months, is an incredible iniquity. 

Coreans, Uke Japanese, argue that, if the law punishes crime, 
it ought also to reward virtue. Hence the system which prevails 
in the mikado's empire and in Cho-sen of pubhcly awarding prizes 
to signal exemplars of filial piety. These in Japan may be in the 
form of money, silver cups, rolls of silk, or gewgaws. In Corea, 
they are shown in monumental columns, or dedicatory temples, 
or by public honors and promotion to office. Less often are the 
rewarded instances of devotion to the mother than to the father. 

Official life has its sunshine and shadows in this land as else- 
where, but perhaps one of the hardest tasks before the Corean 
ruling classes of this and the next generation is the duty of dili- 
gently eating their words. Accustomed for centuries to decry 
and belittle the foreigner from Christendom, they must now, as 
the people discern the superiority of westerners, *' rise to explain '* 
in a manner highly embarrassing. In intellect, government, science, 
social customs, manual skill, refinement, and possession of the arts 
and comforts of hfe, the foreigner vrill soon be discovered to be 
superior. At the same time the inteUigent native will behold 
with how little wisdom, and how much needless cruelty, Cho-sen 
is governed. The Japanese official world has passed through such 
an experience. If we may argue from a common ancestry and 
hereditary race traits, we may forecast the probability that to 
Corea, as to Japan, may come the same marvellous revolution iu 
ideas and customs. 



CHAPTEE XXYII. 

FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 

It is remarked by Palladius that the Fuyu race, the ancestors 
of the modern Coreans, was the first to emerge from the desert 
under feudal forms of organization. The various migrations of 
new nations rising out of northern and eastern Asia were west- 
ward, and were held together under monarchical systems of govern- 
ment. The Fuyu tribes who, by turning their face to the rising, 
instead of the setting sun, were anomalous in the direction of 
their migration, were unique also in their political genius. Those 
emigrants who, descending from the same ancestral seats in Man- 
churia, and through the peninsula, crossed toward Nippon, or 
Sunrise, and settled Japan, maintained their feudalism until, 
through ambitious desire to rival great China, they borrowed the 
centralized system of court and monarchy from the Tang dynasty, 
in the seventh century. The mikado, by means of boards or 
ministries like the Chinese, ruled his subjects until the twelfth 
centiuy. Then, through the pride and ambition of the military 
clans, which had subdued all the tribes to his sway, feudalism, 
which had spread its roots, lifted its head. By rapid growths, 
under succeeding military regents, it grew to be the tree over- 
spreading the empire. It was finally uprooted and destroyed only 
by the revolution of 1868, and the later victories of united Japan's 
imperial armies, at an awful sacrifice of life and treasure. 

That branch of the Fuyu migration which remained in the 
Corean peninsula likewise preserved the institution of feudalism 
which had been inherited from their ancestors. In their early 
history, lands were held on the tenure of military service, and in 
war time, or on the accession of a new dynasty, rewards were 
made by parcelling out the soil to the followers of the victor. 
Provision for a constant state of servitude among one class of the 
poHtical body was made by the custom of making serfs of crimi- 
nals or their kindred. A nucleus of slavery being once formed* 



338 COREA. 

debt, famine, capture in war, voluntary surrender, would serve to 
increase those whose persons and labor were wholly or partly 
owned by another. To social prosperity, religion, and the increase 
of general intelligence, we may look as elements for the ameliora- 
tion of serfdom and the elevation of certain classes of bondsmen 
into free people. The forms of Corean society, to this day, are 
derived from feudal ranks and divisions, and the powers, status, 
divisions, and practical politics of the nobles have their roots in 
the ancient feudalism which existed even " before the conquest." 
Its fruit and legacy are seen in the serfdom or slavery which is 
Corea's " domestic " or " peculiar " institution. 

Speaking in general terms, the ladder of society has four nmgs, 
the king, nobles, and the three classes of society, in the last of 
which are " the seven low callings." In detail, the grades may be 
counted by the tens and scores. In the lowest grade of the fourth 
class are "the seven vile callings," viz. : the merchant, boatman, 
jailor, postal or mail slave, monk, butcher, and sorcerer. 

The "four classes of society" include the literary men or 
officials, the farmers, the artisans, and the traders. Among the 
nobiHty are various ranks, indicated by titles, high offices at court, 
or nearness of relationship to the king. He is " neither ox nor 
horse " is the native slang for one who is neither noble nor com- 
moner. The nobles are usuaJly the serf-proprietors or slave-hold- 
ers, many of them having in their households large numbers 
whom they have inherited along with their ancestral chattels. 
The master has a right to sell or otherwise dispose of the children 
of his slaves if he so choose. The male slave is called chong-nom. 
A free man may marry a female slave, in which case iie is termed 
a pi-pu. The male children by this marriage are free, but the 
female offspring belong to the master of the mother, and may be 
sold. A liberated slave is called pal-sin, and he speaks of his 
former master as ku-siang. The native vocabulary for the slave 
in his various relations is sufficiently copious. " Fugitive " slaves, 
" slave-hunters," and " slave-drivers," are as common to the Co- 
rean ear, as to the American in the long-ago days of "before the 
war." A pan-no is a bondsman trying to escape, and to attempt 
chiu-ro is to hunt the fugitive and bring him back. The in-chang 
is the public slave of the village. Yet such a thing as the bonds- 
man's servile love of place, rising into swollen and oppressive 
pride that looks down on the poor freeman, is a common thing, 
and cruel and overbearing treatment of the peasantry by the min- 



FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 239 

ions of a noble is too frequently witnessed in Corea. " Tek-pun- 
ai" ("By your favor," equivalent to "Let me live, I pray you") 
is a cry, more than once heard by French missionaries, from a 
man beaten by the swaggering serfs of some nobleman. It is 
not exactly the feeling of the sleek and well-bred black slave of 
old-time Virginia for "the poor white trash," since in Corea 
slavery has no color-line ; yet, in essentials of circumstance, it is 
the same. Such a phase of character is more likely to be devel- 
oped among the serfs of the old barons or landed proprietors who 
have longest occupied their hereditary possessions, and who keep 
up a petty court within their castles or semi-fortified mansions. 

Slavery or serfdom in Corea is in a continuous state of decline, 
and the number of slaves constantly diminishing. In the remote 
provinces it is practically at an end. The greater number of serfs 
are to be found attached to the estates of the great noble families 
of the central provinces. The slaves are those who are born in a 
state of servitude, those who sell themselves as slaves, or those 
who are sold to be such by their parents in time of famine or for 
debt. Infants exposed or abandoned that are picked up and 
educated become slaves, but their offspring are born free. The 
serfdom is really very mild. Only the active young men are held 
to field labor, the young women being kept as domestics. "When 
old enough to marry, the males are let free by an annual payment 
of a sum of money for a term of years. Often the slaves marry, 
are assigned a house apart, and bound only to a fixed amount of 
labor. Although the master has the power of life and death over 
his slaves, the right is rarely exercised unjustly, and the mission- 
aries report that there were few cases of excessive cruelty prac- 
tised. An unjust master could be cited before the tribunals, and 
the case inquired into. Often the actual condition of the serfs is 
superior to that of the poor villagers, and instances are common 
in which the poor, to escape the rapacity and cruelty of the nobles, 
have placed themselves under the protection of a master known to 
be a kind man, and thus have purchased ease and comfort at the 
sacrifice of liberty. 

Outside of private ownership of slaves, there is a species of 
government slavery, which illustrates the persistency of one feature 
of ancient Kokorai perpetuated through twenty centuries. It is the 
law that in case of the condemnation of a great criminal, the ban 
of Ui-ro-ui-pi shall fall upon his wife and children, who at once 
become the slaves of the judge. These unfortunates do not have 



240 COREA. 

the privilege of honorably serving the magistrate, but usually pa^a 
their existence in vraiting on the menials in the various depart- 
ments and magistracies. Only a few of the government slaves 
are such by birth, most of them having become so through judicial 
condemnation in criminal cases ; but this latter class fare far worse 
than the ordinary slaves. They are chiefly females, and are treated 
very little better than beasts. They are at the mercy not only of 
the officers but even of their satellites, servants, and grooms, or 
to whomever they are sold for an hour. Nothing can equal the 
contempt in which they are held, and for an honest or an innocent 
woman, such a fate is worse than many deaths. In the earliest 
written account of the Kokorai people, the ancestors of the mod- 
em Coreans, we find this same feature of ancient feudalism by 
which a class of serfs may be continually provided. To Christian 
eyes it is a horrible relic of barbarism. 

The penal settlements on the sea-coast, and notably Quelpart 
Island, are worked by colonies of these male government slaves or 
convicts. The females are not usually sent away from the place 
of their parents or their own crime. 

In ancient times of Kokorai and Korai there were only two 
classes of people, the nobles and their free retainers, and the 
serfs or slaves. The nobles were lords of cities and castles, Hke 
the daimios of Japan, and were very numerous. The whole coun- 
try was owned by them, or at least held in the king's name under 
tenure of military service — a lien which length of time only 
strengthened. In the long centuries of peace, many of these old 
famiHes — weakly descendants of vigorous founders — have died out, 
and the land reverting to the sovereign, or possessed by the peo- 
ple, is now owned by a more numerous and complex class, while 
nearly all the cities and towns are governed by officers sent out 
by the central authority at Seoul. The ancient class of serfs has, 
by industry and intelligence and accumulation of rights vested 
in their special occupations, developed into the various middle 
classes. The nobles are now in a minority, though at present 
their power is on the increase, and their ancestral landholds com- 
prise but a small portion of the soil. 

As in mediaeval Europe, so in Corea, where feudalism, which 
rests on personal loyalty to a reigning sovereign, or a particular 
royal line, prevails, a more or less complete revolution of titles and 
possessions takes place upon a change of dynasty. On the acces- 
sion of the present royal house in 1392, the old Korai nobility 



FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 241 

were impoverislied and the partisans of the founder of the Ni, and 
all who had aided him to the throne, became at once the nobihty 
of the kingdom, and were rewarded by gifts of land. To the 
victors belonged the spoils. The honors, riches, and the exclu- 
sive right to fill many of the most desirable public offices were 
awarded in perpetuity to the aristocracy. The mass of the people 
were placed or voluntarily put themselves under the authority of 
the nobles. The agricultural class attached to the soil simply 
changed masters and landlords, while the cities and tovms people 
and sea-coast dwellers became, only in a nominal sense, the ten- 
antry of the nobles. Gradually, however, those who had ability 
and address obtained their full liberty, so that they were in no 
way bound to pay tithe or tax to the nobles, but only to the cen- 
tral government. Under peace, with wealth, intelligence, combi- 
nation, trade-unions, and guilds, and especially by means of the 
literary examinations, the various classes of the people emerged 
into independent existence, leaving but a few of the lowest of the 
population in the condition of serfs or slaves. Between the ac- 
counts of Hamel in 1653, and of the French missionaries in the 
last decade, there are many indications of progress. Laborers, 
artisans, merchants, soldiers, etc., now have a right to their own 
labor and earnings, and the general division of the common- 
wealth is into three classes — nobles, common people, and serfs or 
slaves. 

Speaking generally, the peculiar institution of Cho-sen is serf- 
dom rather than slavery, and is the inheritence of feudalism ; yet, 
as Russia has had her Alexander, America her Lincoln, and Japan 
her Mutsiihito, we may hope to see some great liberator yet arise 
in the "Land of Morning Calm." 

Under absolute despotisms, as most Asiatic governments are, 
it is a wonder to republicans how the people enjoy any liberty 
at all. If they have any, it is interesting to study how they have 
attained it, and how they hold it. Politically, they have absolutely 
no freedom. They know nothing of government, except to pay 
taxes and obey. Their political influence is nothing. In Cho-sen, 
according to law, any person of the common people may compete 
at the public examinations for civil or military employment, but, 
in point of fact, his degree is often worthless, for he is not likely 
to receive office by it. In a country where might and wealth 
make right, and human beings are poHtically naught, being but 
beasts of burden or ciphers without a unit, how do the people 
16 



242 COREA. 

protect themselves and gain any liberty ? How does it come to 
pass that serfs may win their way to social freedom ? 

It is by union and organization. The spirit of association, so 
natural and necessary, is spread among the Coreans of all classes, 
from the highest families to the meanest slaves. All those who 
have any kind of work or interest in common form g-uilds, cor- 
porations, or societies, which have a comiD^on fund, contributed to 
by all for aid in time of need. Very powerful trade-unions exist 
among the mechanics and laborers, such as porters, ostlers, and 
pack-horse leaders, hat-weavers, coffin-makers, carpenters, and 
masons. These societies enable each class to possess a monopoly 
of their trade, which even a noble vainly tries to break. Some- 
times, they hold this right by writ purchased or obtained from 
government, though usually it is by prescription. Most of the 
guilds are taxed by the government for their monopoly enjoyed. 
They have their chief or head man, who possesses almost despotic 
power, and even, in some guilds, of life and death. New mem- 
bers or apprentices may be admitted by paying their rate and 
submitting to the rules of the guild. In the higher grades of so- 
ciety we see the same spirit of association. The temple attend- 
ants, the servants of the nobles, the gardeners, messengers, and 
domestics of the palace, the supernumeraries and government 
employes, all have their "rings," which an outsider may not 
break. Even among the noble families the same idea exists in 
due form. The villages form each a little republic, and possess 
among themselves a common fund to which every family con- 
tributes. Out of this money, hid in the earth or lent out on 
interest, are paid the public taxes, expenses of marriage and 
burial, and whatever else, by custom and local opinion, is held to 
be a public matter. Foreigners, accustomed to the free competi- 
tion of English-speaking countries, will find in Cho-sen, as they 
found in Japan, and even more so, the existence of this spirit of 
protective association and monopoly illustrated in a hundred 
forms which are in turn amusing, vexatious, or atrocious. A man 
who in injustice, or for mere caprice, or in a fit of temper, dis- 
charges his ostler, house-servant, or carpenter, wiU find that he 
cannot obtain another good one very easily, even at higher wages, 
or, if so, that his new one is soon frightened off the premises. To 
get along comfortably in Chinese Asia, one must, willy-nilly, pay 
respect to the visible or invisible spirit of trade-unionism that 
pervades all society in those old countries. 



FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 243 

One of the most powerful and best organized guilds is that of 
the porters. The interior commerce of the country being almost 
entirely on the backs of men and pack-horses, these people have 
the monopoly of it. They number about ten thousand, and are 
divided by provinces and districts under the orders of chiefs, 
sub-chiefs, censors, inspectors, etc. A large number of these por- 
ters are women, often poor widows, or those unable to marry. 
Many of them are of muscular frame, and their life in the open 
air tends to develop robust forms, with the strength of men. 
They speak a conventional language, easily understood among 
themselves, and are very profuse in their salutations to each other. 
They have very severe rules for the government of their guild, 
and crimes among them are punished with death, at the order of 
their chief. They are so powerful that they pretend that even the 
government dare not interfere with them. They are outside the 
power of the local magistrate, just as a German University student 
is responsible to the Faculty, but not to the police. They are 
honest and faithful in their business, delivering packages with 
certainty to the most remote places in the kingdom. They are 
rather independent of the people, and even buUy the officers. 
When they have received an insult or injustice, or too low wages, 
they "strike" in a body and retire from the district. This puts 
a stop to all travel and business, until these grievances are settled 
or submission to their own terms is made. 

Owing to the fact that the country at large is so lacking in the 
shops and stores so common in other countries, and that, instead, 
fairs on set days are so numerous in the towns and villages, the 
guild of pedlers and hucksters is very large and influential. The 
class includes probably 200,000 able-bodied adult persons, who in 
the various provinces move freely among the people, and are thus 
useful to the government as spies, detectives, messengers, and, in 
time of need, soldiers. It was from this class that the Corean bat- 
talions which figured prominently in the affair of December 4-6j 
1887, were recruited. 



CHAPTER XXYIIL 

SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 

According to the opinions of the French missionaries, who were 
familiar with the social life of the people, a Corean woman has no 
moral existence. She is an instrument of pleasure or of labor ; but 
never man's companion or equal. She has no name. In child- 
hood she receives indeed a surname by which she is known in the 
family, and by near friends, but at the age of puberty, none but 
her father and mother employ this appellative. To all others she 
is " the sister " of such a one, or " the daughter " of so-and-so. 
After her marriage her name is buried. She is absolutely name- 
less. Her own parents allude to her by employing the name of 
the district or ward in which she has married. Her parents-in- 
law speak of her by the name of the place in which she lived 
before marriage, as women rarely marry in the same village with 
their husbands. When she bears children, she is " the mother " 
of so-and-so. When a woman appears for trial before a magis- 
trate, in order to save time and trouble, she receives a special 
name for the time being. The women below the middle class 
work very hard. Farm labor is done chiefly by them. Manure 
is applied by the women, rarely by the men. The women carry 
lunch to the laborers in the field, eating what is left for their 
share. In going to market, the women carry the heavier load. In 
their toilet, the women use rouge, white powders, and hair oil. 
They shave the eyebrows to a narrow line — that is, to a perfectly 
clean arch, with nothing straggling. They have luxuriant hair, 
and, in addition, use immense switches to fill out large coiffures. 

In the higher classes of society, etiquette demands that the 
children of the two sexes be separated after the age of eight or 
ten years. After that time the boys dwell entirely in the men's 
apartments, to study and even to eat and drink. The girls remain 
secluded in the women's quarters. The boys are taught that it is 
a shameful thing even to set foot in the female part of the house 



SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 245 

The girls are told that it is disgraceful even to be seen by males, 
so that gradually they seek to hide themselves whenever any of 
the male sex appear. These customs, continued from childhood 
to old age, result in destroying the family life. A Corean of good 
taste only occasionally holds conversation with his wife, whom he 
regards as being far beneath him. He rarely consults her on 
anything serious, and though living under the same roof, one may 
say that husband and wife are widely separated. The female 
apartments among the higher classes resemble, in most respects, 
the zenanas of India. The men chat, smoke, and enjoy them- 
selves in the outer rooms, and the women receive their parents 
and friends in the interior apartments. The same custom, based 
upon the same prejudice, hinders the common people in their mo- 
ments of leisure from remaining in their own houses. The men 
seek the society of their male neighbors, and the women, on their 
part, unite together for local gossip. In the higher classes, when a 
young woman has arrived at marriageable age, none even of her 
own relatives, except those nearest of kin, is allowed to see or 
speak to her. Those who are excepted from this rule must ad- 
dress her with the most ceremonious reserve. After their mar- 
riage, the women are inaccessible. They are nearly always con- 
fined to their apartments, nor can they even look out in the streets 
without permission of their lords. So strict is this rule that 
fathers have on occasions killed their daughters, husbands their 
wives, and wives have committed suicide when strangers have 
touched them even with their fingers. The common romances 
or novels of the country expatiate on the merits of many a Corean 
Lucretia. In some cases, however, this exaggerated modesty pro- 
duces the very results it is intended to avoid. If a bold villain 
or too eager paramour should succeed in penetrating secretly 
the apartments of a noble lady, she dare not utter a cry, nor 
oppose the least resistance which might attract attention ; for then, 
whether guilty or not, she would be dishonored forever by the 
simple fact that a man had entered her chamber. Every Corean 
husband is a Cassar in this respect. If, however, the affair remains 
a secret, her reputation is saved. 

There is, however, another side. Though counting for noth- 
ing in society, and nearly so in their family, they are surrounded 
by a certain sort of exterior respect. They are always addressed 
in the formulas of honorific language. The men always step aside 
in the street to allow a woman to pass, even though she be of the 



246 COREA. 

poorer classes. The apartments of females are inviolable even to 
the minions of the law. A noble who takes refuge in his wife's 
room may not be seized. Only in cases of rebellion is he dragged 
forth, for in that case his family are reckoned as accomplices in 
his guilt. In other crimes the accused must in some way be en- 
ticed outside, where he may be legally arrested. When a pedler 
visits the house to show his wares, he waits until the doors of the 
women's apartments are shut. This done, his goods are examined 
in the outer apartments, which are open to all. When a man 
wishes to mend, or go up on his roof, he first notifies his neigh- 
bors, in order that they may shut their doors and windows, lest 
he risk the horrible suspicion of peeping at the women. As the 
Coreans do not see a "man in the moon," but only a rabbit 
pounding drugs, or a lady banished there for a certain fault, 
according as they are most familiar with Sanskrit or the Chinese 
story, the females are not afraid of this luminary, nor are the men 
jealous of her, the moon being female in their ideas of gender. 

Marriage in Cho-sen is a thing with which a woman has little 
or nothing to do. The father of the young man communicates, 
either by call or letter, with the father of the girl whom he wishes 
his son to marry. This is often done without consulting the tastes 
or character of either, and usually through a middle-man or go- 
between. The fathers settle the time of the wedding after due 
discussion of the contract. A favorable day is appointed by the 
astrologers, and the arrangements are perfected. Under this aspect 
marriage seems an affair of small importance, but in reality it is 
marriage only that gives one any civil rank or influence in so- 
ciety. Every unmarried person is treated as a child. He may 
commit all sorts of foolishness without being held to account. 
His capers are not noticed, for he is not supposed to think or act 
seriously. Even the unmarried young men of twenty-five or thirty 
years of age can take no part in social reunions, or speak on affairs 
of importance, but must hold their tongues, be seen but not heard. 
Marriage is emancipation. Even if mated at twelve or thirteen 
years of age, the married are adults. The bride takes her place 
among the matrons, and the young man has a right to speak 
among the men and to wear a hat. The badge of single or of 
married life is the hair. Before marriage, the youth, who goes 
bareheaded, wears a simple tress, hanging down his back. The 
nuptial tie is, in reality, a knot of hair, for in wedlock the hair is 
bound up on the top of the head and is cultivated on all parts of 



SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 247 

the scalp. According to old traditions, men ought never to clip 
a single hair ; but in the capital the young gallants, in order to 
add to their personal attractions — with a dash of fashionable defi- 
ance — trim their locks so that their coiffure will not increase in 
size more than a hen's egg. The women, on the contrary, not 
only preserve all their own hair, but procure false switches and 
braids to swell their coiffures to fashionable bulk. They make up 
two large tresses, which are rolled to the back and top of the 
head, and secured by a long pin of silver or copper. The common 
people roll their plaits around their heads, like a turban, and 
shave the front of the scalp. Young persons who insist on re- 
maining single, or bachelors arrived at a certain or uncertain age, 
and who have not yet found a wife, secretly cut off their hair, or 
get it done by fraud, in order to pass for married folks and avoid 
being treated as children. Such a custom, however, is a gross 
violation of morals and etiquette. (See illustration, page 161.) 

On the evening before the wedding, the young lady who is to 
be married invites one of her friends to change her virginal coif- 
fure to that of a married woman. 

The bridegroom-to-be also invites one of his acquaintance to 
"do up" his hair in manly style. The persons appointed to per- 
form this service are chosen with great care, and as changing the 
hair marks the turning-point in life, the hair-dresser of this 
occasion is called the " hand of honor," and answers to the brides- 
maid and groomsman of other countries. 

On the marriage-day, in the house of the groom, a platform is 
set up and richly adorned with decorative woven stuffs. Parents, 
friends, and acquaintances assemble in a crowd. The couple to 
be married — who may never have seen or spoken to each other — 
are brought in and take their places on the platform, face to face. 
There they remain for a few minutes. They salute each other 
with profound obeisance, but utter not a word. This constitutes 
the ceremony of marriage. Each then retires, on either side ; the 
bride to the female, the groom to the male apartments, where 
feasting and amusement, after fashions in vogue in Cho-sen, take 
place. The expense of a wedding is considerable, and the bride- 
groom must be unstinting in his hospitality. Any failure in this 
particular may subject him to unpleasant practical jokes. 

On her wedding-day, the young bride must preserve absolute 
silence, both on the marriage platform and in the nuptial cham- 
ber. Etiquette requires this at least among the nobility. Though 



248 COREA. 

overwlielmed with questions and compliments, silence is her duty. 
She must rest mute and impassive as a statue. She seats herseli 
in a comer clothed in all the robes she can bear upon her person. 
Her husband may disrobe her if he wishes, but she must take no 
part or hinder him. If she utters a word or makes a gesture, she 
is made the butt of the jokes and gossip of her husband's house 
or neighborhood. The female servants of the house place them- 
selves in a peeping position to listen or look through the win- 
dows, and are sure to publish what they see and hear amiss. Or 
this may be done to discover whether the husband is pleased with 
his wife, or how he behaves to her, as is the case in Japan. A bit 
of gossip — evidently a stock story — is the following from Dallet : 

A newly married Corean groom spent a whole day among his 
male friends, in order to catch some words from his wife at their 
first interview, after their hours of separation. His spouse was 
informed of this, and perhaps resolved to be obstinate. Her hus- 
band, having vainly tried to make her speak, at last told her that 
on consulting the astrologers they had said that his wife was 
mute from birth. He now saw that such was the case, and was 
resolved not to keep for his wife a dumb woman. Now in a Co- 
rean wedding, it is quite possible that such an event may take 
place. One of the contracting parties may be deaf, mute, blind, 
or impotent. It matters not'. The marriage exists. But the 
wife, stung by her husband's words, broke out in an angry voice, 
"Alas, the horoscope drawn for my partner is still more true. 
The diviner announced that I should marry the son of a rat." 
This, to a Corean, is a great insult, as it attaints father and son, 
and hence the husband and his father. The shouts of laughter 
from the eavesdropping female servants added to the discomfiture 
of the young husband, who had gained his point of making his 
bride use her tongue at a heavy expense, for long did his friends 
jeer at him for his bravado, and chaff him at catching a Tartar. 

From the language, and from Japanese sources, we obtain 
some side-lights on the nuptial ceremony and married Hfe. In 
Corean phrase hon-sang (the wedding and the funeral) are the 
two great events of life. Many are the terms relating to mar- 
riage, and the synonyms for conjugal union. "To take the hat," 
"to clip the hair," "to don the tuft," " to sit on the mat," are all 
in use among the gentlemen of the peninsula to denote the act 
or state of marriage. The hat and the hair play an important 
part in the transition from single to double blessedness. AU who 



SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 249 

wear their locks ta-rai, or in a tress behind, are youths and 
maidens. Those with the tuft or top-knot are married. At his 
wedding and during the first year, the bridegroom wears a cap, 
made of a yellow herb, which is supposed to grow only near 
Sunto. Other honeymoon caps are melon-shaped, and made of 
sable skin. Ater the chung-mai, or middle-man, has arranged the 
match, and the day is appointed for the han-sa, or wedding, the 
bride chooses two or three maiden friends as " bridesmaids." If 
rich, the bride goes to her future husband's house in a palanquin ; 
if poor, she rides on horseback. Even the humblest maid uses a 
sort of cap or veil, with ornaments on the breast, back, and at the 
girdle. When she cannot buy, she borrows. The prominent sym- 
bolic figure at the wedding is a goose, which, in Corean eyes, is 
the emblem of conjugal fidelity. Sometimes this mok-an is of 
gilded wood, sometimes it is made out of a fish for eating, again 
it is a live bird brought in a cloth with the head visible. If in 
the house, as is usual, the couple ascend the piled mats or dais 
and the reciprocal prostrations, or acts of mutual consent, form 
the sacramental part of the ceremony, and constitute marriage. 
The bride bows four times to her father-in-law and twice to the 
groom. The groom then bows four times to the bride. Other 
symbolic emblems are the fantastic shapes of straw (otsuJca) pre- 
sented to bride and groom alike. Dried pheasant is also brought 
in and cut. A gourd-bottle of rice-wine, decorated or tied with 
red and blue thread, is handed by the bride to the groom. The 
bridesmaids standing beside the couple pour the liquid and pass 
for exchange the one little " cup of the wine of mutual joy," sev- 
eral times filled and emptied. 

Then begins the wedding-feast, when the guests drink and 
make merry. The important document certifying the fact of wed- 
lock is caUed the hon-se-chi, and is signed by both parties. When 
the woman is unable to write, she makes "her mark" (siu^on) 
by spreading out her hand and tracing with a pencil the exact 
profile of palm, wrist, and fingers. Sometimes the groom, in ad- 
dition to his four prostrations, which are significant of fidelity to 
the bride, gives to his father-in-law a written oath of constancy to 
his daughter. Faithfulness is, however, a typical feminine, rather 
than masculine, virtue in the hermit nation. The pong-kang, a 
kind of wild canary bird, is held up to the wife as her model of 
conjugal fidelity. Another large bird, somewhat exceeding a duck 
in size, and called the ching-kiong, is said never to remate after 



250 COREA. 

tlie death of its consort. Corean widows are expected to imitate 
tMs virtuous fowl. In some places may be seen the vermilion 
arch or monumental gateway erected to some widow of faithful 
memory who wedded but once. Married women wear two rings 
on the ring finger. Sixty years, or a cycle, completes the ideal 
length of marital life, and "a golden wedding" is then celebrated. 

Among the most peculiar of women's rights in Cho-sen is the 
curious custom forbidding any males in Seoul from being out 
after eight o'clock in the evening. When this Corean curfew 
sounds, all men must hie in-doors, while women are free to ramble 
abroad imtil one a.m. To transgress this law of pem-ya brings 
severe penalty upon the offender. In-doors, the violation of the 
privacy of the woman's quarters is punishable by exile or severe 
flagellation. 

The following story, from DaUet, further illustrates some 
phases of their marriage customs, and shows that, while polygamy 
is not allowed, concubinage is a recognized institution : 

A noble wished to marry his own daughter and that of his 
deceased brother to eligible young men. Both maidens were of 
the same age. He wished to wed both well, but especially his 
own child. "With this idea in view he had already refused some 
good offers. Finally he made a proposal to a family noted alike for 
pedigree and riches. After hesitating some time which of the 
maidens he should dispose of first, he finally decided upon his own 
child. Without having seen his future son-in-law, he pledged his 
word and agreed upon the night. Three days before the ceremony 
he learned from the diviners that the young man chosen was silly, 
exceedingly ugly, and very ignorant. What should he do ? He 
could not retreat. He had given his word, and in such a case the 
law is inflexible. In his despair he resolved upon a plan to render 
abortive what he could not avert. On the day of the marriage, 
he appeared in the women's apartments, and gave orders in the 
most imperative manner that his niece, and not his daughter, 
should don the marriage coiffure and the wedding-dress, and 
mount the nuptial platform. His stupefied daughter could not 
but acquiesce. The two cousins being of about the same height, 
the substitution was easy, and the ceremony proceeded according 
to the usual forms. The new bridegroom passed the afternoon in 
the men's apartments, where he met his supposed father-in-law. 
What was the amazement of the old noble to find that far from 
being stupid and ugly, as depicted by the diviners, the young man 



SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 251 

was good-looking, well-formed, intelligent, liighlj educated, and 
amiable in manners. Bitterly regretting the loss of so accom- 
plished a son-in-law, he determined to repair the evil. He secretly 
ordered that, instead of his niece, his daughter should be intro- 
duced as the bride. He knew well that the young man would 
suspect nothing, for during the salutations the brides are always 
so muffled up with dresses and loaded with ornaments that it is 
impossible to distinguish their countenances. 

All happened as the old man desired. During the two or 
three days which he passed with the new family, he congratulated 
himself upon obtaining so excellent a son-in-law. The latter, on 
his part, showed himself more and more charming, and so gained 
the heart of his supposed father-in-law that, in a burst of confi- 
dence, the latter revealed to him all that had happened. He told 
of the diviners' reports concerning him, and the successive substi- 
tutions of niece for daughter and daughter for niece. 

The young man was at first speechless, then, recovering his 
composure, said: "All right, and that is a very smart trick on 
your part. But it is clear that both the two young persons belong 
to me, and I claim them. Your niece is my lawful wife, since she 
has made to me the legal salute, and your daughter — introduced 
by yourself into my marriage-chamber — has become of right and 
law my concubine." The crafty old man, caught in his own net, 
had nothing to answer. The two young women were conducted 
to the house of the new husband and master, and the old noble 
was jeered at both for his lack of address and his bad faith. 

It is the reciprocal salutation before witnesses on the wedding- 
dais that constitutes legitimate marriage. From that moment a 
husband may claim the woman as his wife. If he repudiates or 
divorces her, he may not marry another woman while his former 
wife is living, but he is free to take as many concubines as he can 
support. It is sufficient that a man is able to prove that he has 
had intimate relations with a maiden or a widow ; she then be- 
comes his legal property. No person, not even her parents, can 
claim her if the man persists in keeping her. If she escape, he 
may use force to bring her back to his house. Conjugal fidelity — 
obligatory on the woman — is not required of the husband, and a 
wife is little more than a slave of superior rank. Among the 
nobles, the young bridegroom spends three or four days with his 
bride, and then absents himself from her for a considerable time, to 
prove that he does not esteem her too highly. Etiquette dooms 



252 COREA. 

her to a species of widowhood, while he spends his hours of relax- 
ation in the society of his concubines. To act otherwise would be 
considered in very bad taste, and highly unfashionable. Instances 
are known of nobles who, having dropped a few tears at the death 
of their wives, have had to absent themselves from the saloons of 
their companions to avoid the torrent of ribaldry and jeers at such 
weakness. Such eccentricity of conduct makes a man the butt of 
long-continued railery. 

Habituated from infancy to such a yoke, and regarding them- 
selves as of an inferior race, most women submit to their lot with 
exemplary resignation. Having no idea of progress, or of an in- 
fraction of established usage, they bear all things. They become 
devoted and obedient wives, jealous of the reputation and well- 
being of their husbands. They even submit calmly to the tyranny 
and unreason of their mothers-in-law. Often, however, there is 
genuine rebellion in the household. Adding to her other faults of 
character, violence and insubordination, a Corean wife quarrels 
with her mother-in-law, makes life to her husband a burden, and in- 
cessantly provokes scenes of choler and scandal. Among the lower 
classes, in such cases, a few strokes of a stick or blows of the fist 
bring the wife to terms. In the higher classes it is not proper 
to strike a woman, and the husband has no other course than that 
of divorce. If it is not easy for him to marry again, he submits. 
If his wife, not content with tormenting him, is unfaithful to him, 
or, deserting his bed, goes back to her own house, he can lead her 
before the magistrate, who after administering a beating with the 
paddles, gives her as a concubine to one of his underlings. 

Women of tact and energy make themselves respected and con- 
quer their legitimate position, as the following example shows. It 
is taken by Dallet from a Corean treatise on morals for the youth 
of both sexes : 

Toward the end of the last century a noble of the capital, of 
high rank, lost his wife, by whom he had had several children. 
His advanced age rendered a second marriage difficult. Never- 
theless, the middle-men (or marriage-brokers employed in such 
cases) decided that a match could be made with the daughter of a 
poor noble in the province of Kiung-sang. On the appointed day 
he appeared at the mansion of his future father-in-law, and the 
couple mounted the stage to make the salute according to custom. 
Our grandee, casting his eyes upon his new wife, stopped for the 
moment thunderstruck. She was very fat, ugly, hump-backed, 



SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 253 

and appeared to be as slightly favored with gifts of mind as of 
body. 

But he could not withdraw, and he played his part firmly. He 
resolved neither to take her to his house nor to have anything to 
do with her. The two or three days which it was proper to pass 
in his father-in-law's house being spent, he departed for the capital 
and paid no further attention to his new relatives. 

The deserted wife, who was a person of a great deal of intelli- 
gence, resigned herself to her isolation and remained in her 
father's house, keeping herself informed, from time to time, of 
what happened to her husband. She learned, after two or three 
years, that he had become minister of the second rank, and that 
he had succeeded in marrying his two sons very honorably. Some 
years later, she heard that he proposed to celebrate, with all 
proper pomp, the festivities of his sixtieth birthday. Immediately, 
without hesitation and in spite of the remonstrances and opposition 
of her parents, she took the road to the capital. There hiring a 
palanquin, she was taken to the house of the minister and an- 
nounced herself as his wife. She alighted, entered the vestibule, 
and presented herself with an air of assurance and a glance of 
tranquillity at the women of the united families. Seating herself at 
the place of honor, she ordered some fire brought, and with the 
greatest calmness lighted her pipe before the amazed domestics. 
The news was carried to the outer apartments of the gentlemen, 
but, according to etiquette, no one appeared surprised. 

Finally the lady called together the household slaves and said 
to them, in a severe tone, "What house is this? I am your mis- 
tress, and yet no one comes to receive me. Where have you been 
brought up ? I ought to punish you severely, but I shall pardon 
you this time." They hastened to conduct her into the midst of 
all the female guests. "Where are my sons-in-law?" she de- 
manded. " How is it that they do not come to salute me ? They 
forget that I am without any doubt, by my marriage, the mother 
of their wives, and that I have a right, on their part, to all the 
honors due to their ovni mothers." 

Forthwith the two daughters-in-law presented themselves with 
a shamed air, and made their excuses as well as they were able. 
She rebuked them gently, and exhorted them to show themselves 
more scrupulous in the accomplishment of their duties. She then 
gave different orders in her quality as mistress of the house. 

Some hours after, seeing that neither of the men appeared, she 



254: COREA. 

called a slave to her, and said to him : " My two sons are surely 
not absent on such a day as this. See if they are in the men's 
apartments, and bid them come here." The sons presented them- 
selves before her, much embarrassed, and blundered out some ex- 
cuses. "How?" said she, "you have heard of my arrival for 
several hours and have not come to salute me ? With such bad 
bringing up, and an equal ignorance of principles of action, how 
will you make your way in the world? I have pardoned my 
slaves and my daughters-in-law for their want of poUteness, but 
for you who are men I cannot let this fault pass unpunished." 
With this she called a slave and bade him give them some strokes 
on the legs with a rod. Then she added, "For your father, the 
minister, I am his servant, and I have not had orders to yield to 
him ; but, as for you, henceforth do you act so as not to forget 
proprieties." Finally the minister himself, thoroughly astonished 
at all that had passed, was obliged to come to terms and to salute 
his wife. Three days after, the festivities being ended, he re- 
turned to the palace. The king asked famiUarly if all had passed 
off happily. The minister narrated in detail the history of his 
marriage, the unexpected arrival of his wife, and how she had con- 
ducted herself. The king, who was a man of sense, replied: "You 
have acted unjustly toward your wife. She appears to me to be a 
woman of spirit and extraordinary tact. Her behavior is admira- 
ble, and I don't know how to praise her enough. I hope you will 
repair the wrongs you have done her." The minister promised, 
and some days later solemnly conferred upon his wife one of the 
highest dignities of the court. 

The woman who is legally espoused, whether widow or slave, 
enters into and shares the entire social estate of her husband. 
Even if she be not noble by birth she becomes so by marrying a 
noble, and her children are so likewise. If two brothers, for ex- 
ample, espouse an aunt and a niece, and the niece falls to the lot 
of the elder, she becomes thereby the elder sister, and the aunt 
wiU be treated as a younger sister. This relation of elder and 
younger sisters makes an immense difference in life, position, and 
treatment, in all Chinese Asia. 

It is not proper for a widow to remarry. In the higher classes 
a widow is expected to weep for her deceased husband, and to wear 
mourning all her life. It would be infamy for her, however young, 
to marry a second time. The king who reigned 1469-1494 excluded 
children of remarried widows from competition at the public exami- 



SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 255 

nations, and from admittance to any official employment. Even 
to the present day such children are looked upon as illegitimate. 

Among a people so passionate as Coreans, grave social disor- 
ders result from such a custom. The young noble widows who 
cannot remarry become, in most cases, secretly or openly the con- 
cubines of those who wish to support them. The others who 
strive to live chastely are rudely exposed to the inroads of pas- 
sion. Sometimes they are made intoxicated by narcotics which are 
put in their drink, and they wake to find themselves dishonored. 
Sometimes they are abducted by force, during the night, by the 
aid of hired bandits. When they become victims of violence, 
there is no remedy possible. It often happens that young widows 
commit suicide, after the death of their husbands, in order to 
prove their fidelity and to secure their honor and reputation 
beyond the taint of suspicion. Such women are esteemed models 
of chastity, and there is no end to their praises among the nobles. 
Through their influence, the king often decrees a memorial gate- 
way, column, or temple, intended to be a monument of their hero- 
ism and virtue. Thus it has often happened that Christian 
widows begged of the missionary fathers permission to commit 
suicide, if attempts were made to violate their houses or their per- 
sons ; and it was with difficulty that they could be made to com- 
prehend the Christian doctrine concerning suicide. 

The usual method of self-destruction is ja-mun, or cutting the 
throat, or opening the abdomen with a sword. In this the Coreans 
are like the Japanese, neck-cutting or piercing being the feminine, 
and hara-kiri (belly-cutting) the masculine, method of ending life 
at one's own hands. 

Among the common people, second marriages are forbidden 
neither by law nor custom, but wealthy families endeavor to imi- 
tate the nobles in this custom as in others. Among the poor, 
necessity knows no law. The men must have their food pre- 
pared for them, and women cannot, and do not willingly die of 
famine when a husband offers himself. Hence second marriages 
among the lowly are quite frequent. 

Most of the facts stated in this chapter are drawn from Dal- 
let's " History of the [Eoman Catholic] Church in Corea." Mak- 
ing due allowance for the statements of celibate priests, who are 
aliens in religion, nationality, and civilization, the picture of the 
social life of Cho-sen is that of abominable heathenism. 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 

CHILD LIFE. 

Judging from a collection of the toys of Corean cliildren, and 
from their many terms of affection and words relating to games 
and sports, festivals and recreation, nursery stories, etc., the life 
of the little Kim or Ni must be a pleasant one. For the blessings 
of offspring the parents offer rice to the god of the household 
(sam-sin-hang), whose tiny shrine holds a place of honor in some 
ornamental niche in the best room. When the baby begins to 
grow, cradles being unknown, the mother puts the infant to sleep 
by to-tak, to-tak — patting it lightly on the stomach. When it is 
able to take its first step across the floor — the tiger-skin rug being 
ready to ease its possible fall — this important household event, 
spoken of with joy as the ja-pak, ja-palc, is described to the neigh- 
bors. As the child grows up and is able to walk and run about, 
the hair is mostly shaved off, so that only a "button of jade" is 
left on the top of the head. This infantile tuft takes its name from 
the badge or togle worn on the top of the men's caps in winter. 
A child, "three feet high," very beautiful and well formed, docile 
and strong, if a son, is spoken of " as a thousand-mile horse " — one 
who promises to make an alert and enduring man. A child noted 
for fihal piety will even cheerfully commit tan-ji — cutting his fin- 
ger to furnish his blood as a remedy for the sickness of father or 
mother. Should the child die, a stone effigy or statue of itself is 
set up before his grave. 

In the capital and among the higher classes, the children's 
toys are very handsome, ranking as real works of art, while in 
every class the playthings of the tiny Corean humanity form but 
a miniature copy of the life of their elders. Among the living pets, 
the monkey is the favorite. These monkeys are fitted with jack- 
ets, and when plump and not too mischievous make capital pets 
for the boys. Puppies share the affections of the nursery with the 
tiger on wheels. Made of paper pulp and painted, this harmless 
effigy of the king of beasts is puUed about with a string. A 



CHILD LIFE. 257 

jumping-jack is but a copy of the little boy who pulls it. A jerk 
of the string draws in the pasteboard tongue, and sends the trum- 
pet to his mouth. Official Ufe is mirrored in the tasselled um- 
brella, the fringed hats, and the toy-chariot with fancy wheels. 
Other toys, such as rattles, flags, and drums, exactly imitate the 
larger models with which the grown-up men and women amuse 
themselves. All these are named, fashioned, and decorated in a 
style peculiarly Corean. Among the most common of the chil- 
dren's plays are the following : A ring is hidden in a heap of sand, 
and the urchins poke sticks into and through the pile to find it. 
Whoever transfixes the circlet wins the game, suggesting our girls' 
game of grace-hoop, though often taking a longer time. Ro- 
settes or pinwheels of paper are made and fastened on the end 
of sticks. Running before the breeze, the miniature windmills 
afford hilarious deUght. 

The children's way of bringing rain is to move the lips up and 
down, distending the cheeks and p^'essing the breath through the 
lips. Playing " dinner " with tiny cups and dishes, and imitating 
the ponderous etiquette of their elders, is a favorite amusement. 
See-saw is rougher and more exhilarating. Games of response 
are often played with hands, head, or feet, in which one watches 
the motions of his rival, opens or shuts his hands, and pays a for- 
feit or loses the game when a false move is made. For the coast- 
dwellers, the sea-shore, with the rocks which are the refuge of 
the shell-fish, is the inexhaustible playground of the children. 
Looking down in the clear deep water of the archipelago they see 
the coral reefs, the bright flower-gardens of marine plants, and 
shoals of striped, banded, crimson-tailed, and green-finned fish, 
which, in the eastern seas, glitter with tints of gold and silver. 
The children, half naked, catch the crabs and lobsters, learning 
how to hold their prizes after many a nab and pinch, which bring 
infantile tears and squalls. One of the common playthings of 
Corean children, the "baby's rattle," is the dried leathery egg of 
the skate, which with a few pebbles inside makes the infant, if not 
its parents, happy with the din. 

Besides a game of patting and dabbling in the water — chal^ak, 
chal-pak — boys amuse themselves by fishing with hook and line or 
net. One method is to catch fish by means of the yek-kui. This 
is a plant of peppery taste, which poisons or stupefies the fish that 
bite the tempting tip, making them easy prey. More serious in- 
door games played by women and children are pa-tok, or back- 
1? 



258 COREA. 

gammon ; sang-pi-yen, dominoes ; siu-tu-chen, game of eighty 
cards ; and chang-keui, or chess. All these pastimes are quite 
different from ours of the same name, yet enough like them to be 
recognized as belonging to the species named. The festivals 
most intensely enjoyed by the children are those of "Treading the 
Bridges," "The Meeting of the Star Lovers," and the "Mouse Fire." 
There is one evening in the year in which men and children, as 
well as women, are allowed to be out in the streets of the capital. 
The people spend the greater part of the night in passing and re- 
passing upon the little bridges of stone. It is a general " night out " 
for all the people. Comedians, singers, harlequins, and merry- 
makers of all kinds are abroad, and it being moonlight, all have a 
good time in " treading the bridges." On the seventh day of the 
seventh month, the festival honored in China, Corea, and Japan 
takes place, for which children wait, in expectation, many days in 
advance. Sweetmeats are prepared, and bamboos strung with strips 
of colored paper are the symbols of rejoicing. On this night the 
two stars Capricornus and Alpha Lyra (or the Herd-boy and Spin- 
ning Maiden) are in conjunction in the milky way ^ (or the Eiver of 
Heaven), and wishes made at this time are supposed to come true. 

Ghu-pul, or the Mouse Fire, occurs in the twelfth month, on the 
day of the Mouse (or rat). Children light brands or torches of dry 
reeds or straw, and set fire to the dry herbage, stubble, and shrub- 
bery on the borders of the roads, in order to singe the hair of the 
various field or ground-burrowing animals, or burn them out, so 
as to obtain a plentiful crop of cotton. 

At school, the pupils study according to the method aU over 
Asia, that is, out loud, and noisily. This kang-siong, or deafening 
buzz, is supposed to be necessary to sound knowledge. Besides 
learning the Chinese characters and the vernacular alphabet, with 
tongue, ear, eye, and pen, the children master the ku-ku ("nine 
times nine"), or the multiplication table, and learn to work the 
four simple rules of arithmetic, and even fractions, involution, and 
evolution on the chon-pan, or sliding numeral frame. A "red 
mark" is a vermilion token of a good lesson, made by the exam- 
iner ; and for a good examination passed rewards are given in the 
form of a first-rate dinner, or one or all of " the four friends of 
the study table" — pens, ink, paper, and inkstand, or brushes, 
sticks of "India" ink, rolls of unsized paper, and an inkstone 

^ See " The Meeting of the Star Lovers," in Japanese Fairy World. 



CHILD LIFE. 259 

or water-dropper. Writing a good autograph signature — "one's 
own pen" — is liighly commended. Sometimes money is given for 
encouragement, which the promising lad saves up in an earthen 
savings-bank. Not a few of the youth of the humbler classes, 
who work in the fields by day and study the characters by night, 
rise to be able officers who fill high stations. 

The French missionaries assure us that the normal Corean is 
fond of children, especially of sons, who in his eyes are worth ten 
times as much as daughters. Such a thing as exposure of children 
is almost unknown. In times of severe famine this may happen 
after failure to give away or seU for a season, that they may be 
bought back. Parents rarely find their family too numerous. 

The first thing inculcated in a child's mind is respect for his 
father. All insubordination is immediately and sternly repressed. 
Far different is it with the mother. She yields to her boy's 
caprices and laughs at his faults and vices without rebuke. The 
child soon learns that a mother's authority is next to nothing. In 
speaking of his father a lad often adds the words " severe," 
"terrible," implying the awe and profound respect in which he 
holds his father. (Something of the same feeling prevails as in 
Japan, where the four dreadful things which a lad most fears, and 
which are expressed in a rhyming proverb, are : "Earthquake, 
wind, fire, and father," or "daddy.") On the contrary, in speak- 
ing of his mother, he adds the words "good," "indulgent," "I'm 
not afraid of her," etc. A son must not play nor smoke in his 
father's presence, nor assume free or easy posture before him. For 
lounging, there is a special room, like a nursery. The son waits 
on his father at meals and gets his bed ready. If he is old or sick- 
ly, the son sleeps near him and does not quit his side night or day. 
If he is in prison the son takes up his abode in the vicinity, to 
communicate with his parent and furnish him vdth luxuries. In 
case of imprisonment for treason, the son at the portal, on bended 
knees day and night, awaits the sentence that vdll reduce himseli 
to slavery. If the accused is condemned to exile, the son must 
at least accompany his father to the end of the journey, and, in 
some cases, share banishment with him. Meeting his father in 
the street, the son must make profound salute on his knees, in 
the dust, or in the ditch. In writing to him, he must make free 
use of the most exaggerated honorifics which the Corean knows. 

The practice of adoption is common, as it is abnormally so 
in all countries where ancestral worship is prevalent and underlies 



260 COREA. 

all religions. Tlie preservation of the family line is the supreme 
end and aim of life. In effect all those persons are descendants 
of particular ancestors who will keep up the ancestral sacrifices, 
guard the tablets and observe the numerous funeral and mourning 
ceremonies which make life such a burden in Eastern Asia. Daugh- 
ters are not adopted, because they cannot accomplish the pre- 
scribed rites. When parents have only a daughter, they marry 
her to an adopted son, who becomes head of the family so adopted 
into. Even the consent of the adopted, or of his parents, is not 
always requisite, for as it is a social, as well as a religious neces- 
sity, the government may be appealed to, and, in case of need, 
forces acceptance of the duty. In this manner, as in the patri- 
archal age of biblical history, a man may be coerced into " rais- 
ing up seed " to defunct ancestors. 

Properly, an adoption, to be legal, ought to be registered at 
the office of the Board of Rites, but this practice has fallen into 
disuse, and it is sufficient to give public notice of the fact among 
the two families concerned. An adoption once made cannot be 
void except by a decree from the Tribunal of Rites, which is diffi- 
cult to obtain. In practice, the system of adoption results in 
many scandals, quarrels, jealousies, and aU the train of evils which 
one familiar with men and women, as they are, might argue a 
•priori without the facts at hand. The iron fetters of Asiatic in- 
stitutions cannot suppress human nature. 

Primogeniture is the rigid rule. Younger sons, at the time of 
their marriage, or at other important periods of life, receive pater- 
nal gifts, now more, now less, according to usage, rank, the family 
fortune, etc., but the bulk of the property belongs to the oldest 
son, on whom the younger sons look as their father. He is the 
head of the family, and regards his father's children as his own. In 
aU Eastern Asia the bonds of family are much closer than among 
Caucasian people of the present time. All the kindred, even to 
the fifteenth or twentieth degree, whatever their social position, 
rich or poor, educated or illiterate, officials or beggars — form a 
clan, a tribe, or more exactly one single family, all of whose mem- 
bers have mutual interests to sustain. The house of one is the 
house of the other, and each vdll assist to his utmost another of 
the clan to get money, office, or advantage. The law recognizes 
this system by levying on the clan the imposts and debts which 
individuals of it cannot pay, holding the sodality responsible for 
the indivdual. To this they submit without complaint or protest. 



CHILD LIFE. 261 

Instead of the family being a unit, as in the west, it is only 
the fragment of a clan, a segment in the great circle of kindred. 
The number of terms expressing relationship is vastly greater and 
much more complex than in EngUsh. One is amazed at the ex- 
uberance of the national vocabulary in this respect. The Coreans 
are fully as clannish as the Chinese, and much more so than the 
Irish ; and in this, as in the Middle Kingdom, lies one great 
obstacle to Christianity or to any kind of individual reform. Mar- 
riage cannot take place between two persons having the same 
family cognomen. There are in the kingdom only one hundred 
and forty or fifty family, or rather clan names. Yet many of these 
names are widespread through the realm. All are formed of a 
single Chinese letter, except six or seven, which are composed of 
two characters. To distinguish the different families who bear the 
same patronymic, they add the name which they call the pu, or 
Gentile name, to indicate the place whence the family originally 
came. In the case of two persons wishing to marry, if this pu is 
the same, they are in the eyes of the law relatives, and marriage 
is forbidden. If the pu of each is different, they may wed. The 
most common names, such as Kim and Ni — answering to our Smitli 
and Jones — have more than a score of pu, which arise from more 
than twenty families, the place of whose origin is in each case 
different. The family name is never used alone. It is always fol- 
lowed by a surname ; or only the word so-pang, junior, sang-wen, 
senior, lord, sir, etc. 

Male adults usually have three personal names, that given in 
childhood, the common proper name, and the common legal name, 
while to this last is often added the title. Besides these, various 
aliases, nicknames, fanciful and punning appellatives, play their 
part, to the pleasure or vexation of their object. This custom is 
the source of endless confusion in documents and common life. 
It was formerly in vogue in Japan, but was abolished by the mi- 
kado's government in 1872, and now spares as much trouble to 
tongue, tpyes, and pens, as a reform in our alphabet and spelling 
woidd save the English-speaking world. As in Nippon, a Corean 
female has but one name from the cradle to the gTave. The titles 
*' Madame," or "Madame widow," are added in mature life. As 
in old Japan, the common people do not, as a rule, have distin- 
guishing individual names, and among them nicknames are very 
common. Corean etiquette forbids that the name of father, mother, 
or uncle be used in conversation, or even pronounced aloud. 



CIIAPTEE XXX. 

HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 

CoREAN architecture is in a very primitive condition. The cas-i 
ties, fortifications, temples, monasteries and public buildings can- 
not approach in magnificence those of Japan or China. The 
country, though boasting hoary antiquity, has few ruins in stone. 
The dwellings are tiled or thatched houses, almost invariably one 
story high. In the smaller towns these are not arranged in regu- 
lar streets, but scattered here and there. Even in the cities and 
capital the streets are narrow and tortuous. 

In the rural parts, the houses of the wealthy are embosomed in 
beautiful groves, with gardens surrounded by charming hedges or 
fences of rushes or split-bamboo. The cities show a greater display 
of red-tiled roofs, as only the officials and nobles are allowed this 
sumptuary honor. Shingles are not much used. The thatching 
is of rice or barley straw, cut close, with ample eaves, and often 
finished with great neatnesss. 

A low waU of uncemented stone, five or six feet high, sur- 
roimds the dwelling, and when kept in repair gives an air of neat- 
ness and imposing soUdity to the estate. Often a pretty rampart 
of flat bamboo or rushes, plaited in the herring-bone pattern, sur- 
mounts the wall, which may be of pebbles or stratified rock and 
mortared. Sometimes the rampart is of wattle, covered with 
smooth white plaster, which, with the gateway, is also surmounted 
by an arched roofing of tiles. Instead of regular slanting lines of 
gables, one meets with the curved and pagoda-hke roofs seen in 
China, with a heavy central ridge and projecting ornaments of 
fire-hardened clay, like the "stirrup" or "devil" tiles of Japan. 
These curves greatly add to the beauty of a Corean house, because 
they break the monotony of the lines of Corean architecture. 

Doors, windows, and lintels are usually rectangular, and are 
set in regularly, instead of being made odd to relieve the ey^, as 
in Japan. Bamboo is a common material for window-frames. 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 263 

The foundations are laid on stone set in the earth, and the 
floor of the humble is part of the naked planet. People one 
grade above the poorest cover the hard ground with sheets of 
oiled paper, which serve as rugs or a carpet. For the better class 
a floor of wood is raised a foot or so above the earth, but in the 
sleeping- and sitting-room of the average family, the "kang" 
forms a vaulted floor, bed, and stove. 

The kang is characteristic of the human dwelling in north- 
eastern Asia. It is a kind of tubular oven, in which human 
beings, instead of potatoes, are baked. It is as though we should 
make a bedstead of bricks, and put foot-stoves under it The floor 
is bricked over, or built of stone over flues, which run from the 
fireplace, at one end of the house, to the chimney at the other. 
The fire which boils the pot or roasts the meat is thus utilized to 
warm those sitting or sleeping in the room beyond. The difficulty 
is to keep up a regular heat without being alternately chilled or 
smothered. With wood fuel this is almost impossible, but by 
dint of tact and regulated draught may be accomplished. As in 
the Swedish porcelain stove, a pail of live coals keeps up a good 
warmth aU night. The kangs survive in the kotatsu of Japan. 

The "fire" in sentiment and fact is the centre of the Corean 
home, and the native phrase, "he has put out his fire," is the dire 
synonym denoting that a man is not only cold and fasting, but in 
want of the necessities of life. 

Bed-clothes are of silk, wadded cotton, thick paper, and tiger, 
wolf, or dog skins, the latter often sewn in large sheets like a car- 
pet. Comfort, cleanliness, and luxury make the bed of the noble 
on the warm brick in winter, or cool matting in summer; but 
with the poor, the cold of winter, and insects of summer, with the 
dirt and rags, make sleeping in a Corean hut a hardship. Cush- 
ions or bags of rice-chaff form the pillows of the rich. The poor 
man uses a smooth log of wood or slightly raised portion of the 
floor to rest his head upon. " Weariness can snore upon the flint 
when resty sloth finds the down pillow hard." 

Three rooms are the rule in an average house. These are for 
cooking, eating, and sleeping. In the kitchen the most noticeable 
articles are the ang-pak, or large earthen jars, for holding rice, 
barley, or water. Each of them is big enough to hold a man 
easily. The second room, containing the kang, is the sleeping 
apartment, and the next is the best room or parlor. Little furni- 
ture is the rule. Coreans, like the Japanese, sit, not cross-legged, 



264: 



COREA. 



but on their heels. Among the well-to-do, dog-skins, or kat-tei, 
cover the floor for a carpet, or splendid tiger-skins serve as rugs. 
Matting is common, the best being in the south. 

As in Japan, the meals are served on the floor on low sangy or 
little tables, one for each guest, sometimes one for a couple. The 
best table service is of porcelain, and the ordinary sort of earthen- 
ware with white metal or copper utensils. The table-cloths are of 
fine glazed paper and resemble oiled silk. No knives or forks are 
used ; instead, chopsticks, laid in paper cases, and, what is more 
common than in China or Japan, spoons are used at every meal. 




Table Spread for Festal Occasions. 



The climax of aesthetic taste occurs when a set of historic porce- 
lain and faience of old Corean manufacture and decoration, with 
the tall and long-spouted teapot, are placed on the pearl-inlaid 
table and filled vrith native delicacies. 

The walls range in quality of decoration from plain mud to col- 
ored plaster and paper. The Corean wall-paper is of all grades, 
sometimes as soft as silk, or as thick as canvas. Sa-peiJc is a favor- 
ite reddish earth or mortar which serves to rough-cast in rich 
color tones the walls of a room. 

Pictures are not common ; the artistic sense being satisfied 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 265 

with scrolls of handsome Chinese characters containing moral 
and literary gems from the classics, or the caligraphic triumph of 
some king, dignitary, or literary friend. To possess a sign-manual 
or autograph scrap of Yung, Hong, or O, the three most renowned 
men of Cho-sen, is reckoned more than a golden manuscript on 
azure paper. 

The windows are square and latticed without or within, and 
covered with tough paper, either oiled or unsized, and moving in 
grooves — the originals of the Japanese sliding-doors and win- 
dows. In every part of a Corean house, paper plays an important 
and useful part. 

Very fine Venetian hUnds are made of threads split from the 
ever-useful bamboo, which secures considerable variety in window 
decoration. The doors are of wood, paper, or plaited bamboo. 
Glass was, tiU recently, a nearly unknown luxury in Corea among 
the common people. Even with the nobles, it is rather a curiosity. 
The windows being made of oiled or thin paper, glass is not a ne- 
cessity. This fact wiU explain the eagerness of the people to pos- 
sess specimens of this transparent novelty. Even old porter and 
ale bottles, which sailors have thrown away, are eagerly picked up, 
begged, bought, or stolen. An old medicine-vial, among the Co- 
reans, used to fetch the price of a crystal goblet among us. The 
possessor of such a prize as a Bass' ale bottle will exhibit it to his 
neighbor as a rare curio from the Western barbarians, just as an 
American virtuoso shows off his last new Satsuma vase or box of 
Soochow lacquer. When English ship captains, visiting the coast, 
gave the Coreans a bottle of wine, the bottle, after being emptied, 
was always carefully returned with extreme politeness as an article 
of great value. The first Corean visitor to the American expedi- 
tion of 1871, went into ecstacies, and his face budded into smiles 
hitherto thought impossible to the grim Corean visage, because 
the cook gave him an arm-load of empty ale-bottles. The height 
of domestic felicity is reached when a Corean householder can 
get a morsel of glass to fasten into his window or sliding-door, 
and thus gaze on the outer world through this " loophole of re- 
treat." This not only saves him from the disagreeable necessity 
of punching a finger-hole through the paper to satisfy his curi- 
osity, but gives him the advantage of not being seen, and of keep- 
ing out the draft. When a whole pane has been secured, it is 
hard to state whether happiness or pride reigns uppermost in the 
owner's bosom. 



26Q COREA. 

Candlesticks are either tall and upright, resting on the floof 
in the Japanese style, or dish-lamps of common oil are used. 

Flint and steel are used to ignite matches made of chips of 
wood dipped in sulphur, by which a " fire-flower " is made to 
blossom, or in more prosaic EngUsh, a flame is kindled. Phos- 
phorus matches, imported from Japan, are caUed by a word signi- 
fying "fire-sprite," "will-of-the-wisp," or ignis-fatuus. 

Usually in a gentlemen's house there is an ante-room or yesti- 
bule, in which neighbors and visitors sit and talk, smoke or drink. 
In this place much freedom is allowed and formaUties are laid 
aside. Here are the facihties and the atmosphere which in West- 
ern lands are found in clubs, coffee- and ale-houses, or obtained 
from newspapers. One such, of which the picture is before us, 
has in it seats, and looks out on a garden or courtyard. On a 
ledge or window-seat are vases of blossoms and cut flowers; a 
smaller vase holds fans, and another is presumably full of to- 
bacco or some other luxury. Short eave-curtains and longer dra- 
pery at the side, give an air of inviting comfort to these free 
and easy quarters, where news and gossip are exchanged. These 
oi-tiang, or outer apartments, are for strangers and men only, 
and women are never expected or allowed to be present. 

The Ching-ja is a small house or room on the bank of a river, 
or overlooking some bit of natural scenery, to which picnic par- 
ties resort, the Coreans most heartily enjoying out-door festivity, 
in places which sky, water, and foliage make beautiful to the eye. 

There are often inscribed on the portals, in large Chinese 
characters, moral mottoes or poetical sentiments, such as "Enter 
happiness, like breezes bring the spring, and depart evil spirit as 
snow melts ia water." Before a new house is finished, a sheet of 
pure white paper, in which are enclosed some nip, or "cash," with 
grains of rice which have been steeped in wine, is nailed or 
fastened on the wall, over the door, and becomes the good spirit 
or genius of the house, sacrifices being duly offered to it. In 
more senses than one, the spirit that presides over too many Co- 
rean households is the alcohol spirit. 

The Corean liquor, by preference, is brewed or distilled from 
rice, miUet, or barley. These alcohohc drinks are of various 
strength, color, and smeU, ranging from beer to brandy. In gen- 
eral their beverages are sufficiently smoky, oily, and alcoholic to 
Western tastes, as the fusel-oil usually remains even in the best 
products of their stills. No trait of the Coreans has more im- 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 267 

pressed their numerous visitors, from Hamel to the Americans, 
than their love of all kinds of strong drink, from ale to whiskey. 
The common verdict is, " They are greatly addicted to the wor- 
ship of Bacchus." The Corean vocabulary bears ample witness to 
the thorough acquaintance of the people with the liquor made 
from grain by their rude processes. The inhabitants of the 
peninsula were hard drinkers even in the days of Fuyu and Koko- 
rai. No sooner were the ports of modern Cho-sen open to com- 
merce than the Chinese established liquor-stores, while European 
wines, brandies, whiskeys, and gins have entered to vary the Co- 
rean' s liquid diet and increase the national drunkenness. 

Strange as it may seem, the peasant, though living between the 
two great tea-producing countries of the world — Japan and China — 
and in the latitude of tea-plantations, scarcely knows the taste oi 
tea, and the fragrant herb is as little used as is coffee in Japan. 
The most common drink, after what the clouds directly furnish, is 
the water in which rice has been boiled. Infusions of dried gin- 
seng, orange-peel, or ginger serve for festal purposes, and honey 
when these fail ; but the word " tea," or cha, serves the Corean, as 
it does the typical Irishman, for a variety of infusions and decoc- 
tions. "With elastic charity the word covers a multitude of sins, 
chiefly of omission ; aU that custom or euphony requires is to 
prefix the name of the substance used to " cha " and the drink is 
tea — of some kind. 

The staple diet has in it much more of meat and fat than that 
of the Japanese. The latter acknowledge that the average Corean 
can eat twice as much as himseK. Beef, pork, fowls, venison, fish, 
and game are consumed without much waste in rejected material. 
Nearly everything edible about an animal is a tidbit, and a curi- 
ous piece of cookery, symbolical of a generous feast, is often found 
at the board of a Hberal host. This tang-talk (which often be- 
comes the "town -talk") is a chicken baked and served with its 
feathers, head, claws, and inwards intact. " To treat to an entire 
fowl" is said of a liberal host, and is equivalent to "killing the 
fatted calf." 

Fish are often eaten raw from tail to head, especially if small, 
with only a little seasoning. Ho-hoi, or fish-bone salad, is a deli- 
cacy. Dog-flesh is on sale among the common butchers' meats, 
and the Coreans enjoy it as our Indians do. In the first month of 
the year, however, owing to religious scruples, no dog-meat is 
eaten, or dishes of canine origin permitted. 



268 COREA. 

The state dinner, given to the Japanese after the treaty, con- 
sisted of this bill of fare : two-inch squares of pastry, made of 
flour, sugar, and oil ; heaps of boiled eggs ; pudding made of 
flour, sesame, and honey ; dried persimmons ; " pine-seeds," honey- 
like food covered with roasted rice colored red and white ; macca- 
roni soup with fowl ; boiled legs of pork, and wine, rice or millet 
spirit with everything. It is customary to decorate the tables on 
grand occasions with artificial flowers, and often the first course 
is intended more for show than for actual eating. For instance, 
when the Japanese party, feasted at Seoul in 1646, first sat down 
to the table, one of them began to help himself to fish, of which 
he was very fond. The dish seemed to contain a genuine cooked 
carp basted with sauce, but, to the embarrassment of the hungry 
guest, the fish would not move. He was relieved by the servant, who 
told him that it was put on the table only for show. The courses 
brought on later contained more substantial nourishment, such as 
fish, flesh, fowl, vegetables, soups, cakes, puddings and tea. Judg- 
ing from certain words in the language, these show-dishes form a 
regular feature at the opening of banquets. The women cook rice 
beautifully, making it thoroughly soft by steaming, while yet re- 
taining the perfect shape of each grain by itself. Other well- 
known dishes are barley, millet, beans, taro (potato cooked in a 
variety of ways), lily-bulbs, sea-weeds, acorns, dai-kon (radishes), 
turnips, and potatoes. Maccaroni and vermicelli are used for soups 
and refreshing lunches. Apples, pears, plums, grapes, persimmons, 
and various kinds of berries help to furnish the table, though the 
flavor of these is inferior to the same fruits grown in our gardens. 

All kinds of condiments, mustard, vinegar, pepper, and a va- 
riety of home-made sauces, are much relished. Itinerant food- 
sellers are not so common as in China, but butcher-shops and 
vermicelli stands are numerous. Two solid meals, with a light 
breakfast, is the rule. Opan, or midday rice, is the dinner. Tai- 
sik is a regular meal. The appearance of the evening star is the 
signal for a hearty supper, and the planet a synonym for the last 
meal of the day. At wakes or funeral feasts, and on festal days, 
the amount of victuals consumed is enormous, while a very palata- 
ble way of remembering the dead is by the yum-pok, or drinking 
of sacrificial wine. The Coreans imderstand the preservative vir- 
tues of ice, and in winter large quantities of this substance are 
cut and stored away for use in the summer, in keeping fresh meat 
and fish. Their ice-houses are made by excavating the ground 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 269 

and covering over the store with earth and sod, from which in hot 
weather they use as may be necessary. These ice stores are often 
under the direction of the government, especially when large 
quantities of fish are being preserved for rations of the army in 
time of war. Those who oversee the work are called " Officers of 
the Eefrigerator." 

One striking fault of the Coreans at the table is their 
voracity, and to this trait of their character Japanese, French, 
Dutch, and Chinese bear witness. It might be supposed that a 
Frenchman, who eats lightly, might make a criticism where an 
EngHshman would be silent ; but not so. All reports concerning 
them seem to agree. In this respect there is not the least differ- 
ence between the rich and poor, noble or plebeian. To eat much 
is an honor, and the merit of a feast consists not in the quality 
but in the quantity of the food served. Little talking is done 
while eating, for each sentence might lose a mouthful. Hence, 
since a capacious stomach is a high accomplishment, it is the aim 
from infancy to develop a belly having all possible elasticity. 
Often the mothers take their babies upon their knees, and after 
stuffing them with rice, Uke a wad in a gun, wiU tap them from 
time to time with the paddle of a ladle on the stomach, to see 
that it is fully spread out or rammed home, and only cease gorg- 
ing when it is physically impossible for the child to swell up 
more. A Corean is always ready to eat ; he attacks whatever he 
meets with, and rarely says, " Enough," Even between meals, he 
will help himseK to any edible that is offered. The ordinary 
portion of a laborer is about a quart of rice, which when cooked 
makes a good bulk. This, however, is no serious hindrance to his 
devouring double or treble the quantity when he can get it. Eat- 
ing matches are common. When an ox is slaughtered, and the 
beef is served up, a heaping bowl of the steaming mess does not 
alarm any guest. Dog-meat is a common article of food, and the 
canine sirloins served up in great trenchers are laid before the 
guests, each one having his own small table to himself. When 
fruits, such as peaches or small melons, are served, they are 
devoured without peeling. Twenty or thirty peaches is considered 
an ordinary allowance, which rapidly disappears. Such a prodi- 
gality in victuals is, however, not common, and for one feast there 
are many fastings. Beef is not an article of daily food with the 
peasantry. Its use is regulated by law, the butcher being a sort 
of government official ; and only under extraordinary circum- 



270 COREA. 

stances, as when a grand festival is to be held, does the king allow 
an ox to be killed in each village. The Coreans are neither fas- 
tidious in their eating nor painstaking in their cooking. Nothing 
goes to waste. All is grist that comes to the miU in their mouths. 

They equal Japanese in devouring raw fish, and uncooked 
food of all kinds is swallowed without a wry face. Even the 
intestines pass among them for delicate viands. Among the 
poorer classes, a cooked fish is rarely seen on the table ; for no 
sooner is it caught than it is immediately opened and devoured. 
The raw viands are usually eaten with a strong seasoning of pep- 
per or mustard, but they are often swallowed vsdthout condiment 
of any sort. Often in passing along the banks of a river, one may 
see men fishing with rod and line. Of these some are nobles who 
are not able, or who never wish to work for a living, yet they will 
fish for food and sport. Instead of a bag or basket to contain the 
game, or a needle to string it upon, each fisher has at his side 
a jar of diluted pepper, or a kind of soy. No sooner is a fish 
hooked, than he is drawn out, seized between the two fingers, 
dipped into the sauce, and eaten without ceremony. Bones do not 
scare them. These they eat, as they do the small bones of fowls. 

Nationally, and individually, the Coreans are very deficient in 
conveniences for the toilet. Bath-tubs are rare, and except in the 
warmer days of summer, when the river and sea serve for immer- 
sion, the natives are not usually found under water. The Japa- 
nese in the treaty expedition in 1876 had to send bath-tubs on 
shore from their ships. Morning ablutions are made in a copper 
basin. The sponges which grow on the west coast seem to find 
no market at home. This neglect of more intimate acquaintance 
with water often makes the lowest classes *'look like mulattos," 
as Hamel said. Gutzlaff, Adams, and others, especially the Japa- 
nese, have noted this personal defect, and have suggested the 
need of soap and hot water. It may be that the contrast between 
costume and cuticle tempts to exaggeration. People who dress 
in white clothing have special need of personal cleanliness. Per- 
haps soap factories will come in the future. 

The men are very proud of their beaj-ds, and the elders very 
particular in keeping them white and clean. The lords of crea- 
tion honor their beard as the distinctive glory and mark of their 
sex. A man is in misery if he has only just enough beard to 
distinguish him from a woman. A full crop of hair on cheek and 
chin insures to its possessor unlimited admiration, while in Co- 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 271 

rean billingsgate tliere are numerous terms of opprobrium for a 
short beard. Europeans are contemptuously termed "sbort- 
hairs" — with no suspicion of the use of the word in New York 
local politics. Old gentlemen keep a little bag in which they 
assiduously collect the combings of their hair, the strokings of 
their beard and parings of their nails, in order that all that be- 
longs to them may be duly placed in their coffin at death. 

The human hair crop is an important item in trade with 
China, to which country it is imported and sold to piece out the 
hair-tails which the Chinese, in obedience to their Manchiu con- 
querors, persist in wearing. Some of this hair comes from poor 
Avomen, but the staple product is from the heads of boys who 
wear their hair parted in the middle, and plaited in a long braid, 
which hangs down their backs. At marriage, they cut this off, 
and bind what remains in a tight, ro\md knot on the top of the 
scalp, using pins or not as they please. 

The court pages and pretty boys who attend the magnates, 
usually rosy-cheeked, well fed, and effeminate looking youths, do 
not give any certain indication of their sex, and foreigners are 
often puzzled to know whether they are male or female. Their 
beardless faces and long hair are set down as belonging to women. 
Most navigators have made this mistake in gender, and when the 
first embassy from Seoul landed in Yokohama, the controversy, 
and perhaps the betting, as to the sex of these nondescripts was 
very lively. Captain Broughton declared that the whole duty of 
these pages seemed to be to smooth out the silk dresses of the 
grandees. Officials and nobles cover their top-knots with neat 
black nets of horse-hair or glazed thread. Often country and 
town people wear a fillet or white band of bark or leaves across 
the forehead to keep the loose hair in order, as the ancient Japa- 
nese used to do. Women coil their glossy black tresses into 
massive knots, and fasten them with pins or golden, silver, and 
brass rings. The heads of the pins are generally shaped like a 
dragon. They oil their hair, using a sort of vegetable pomatum. 
Among the court ladies and female musicians the styles of 
coiffure are various ; some being very pretty, with loops, bands, 
waves, and "bangs," as the illustration on page 161 shows. 

Corea is decidedly the land of big hats. From their amplitude 
these head-coverings might well be called "roofs," or, at least, 
"umbrellas." Their diameter is so great that the human head 
encased in one of them seems but as a hub in a cart-wheel. They 



272 COREA. 

would probably serve admirably as parachutes in leaping from a 
high place. Under his wide-spreading official hat a magistrate 
can shelter his wife and family. It serves as a numeral, since a 
company is counted by hats, instead of heads or noses. How the 
Corean dignitary can weather a gale remains a mystery, and, per- 
haps, the feat is impossible and rarely attempted. A slim man is 
evidently at a disadvantage in a "Japanese wind" or typhoon. 
The personal avoirdupois, which is so much admired in the penin- 
sula, becomes very useful as ballast to the head-sail. Corean 
magnates, cast away at sea, would not lack material for ship's can- 
vas. In shape, the gentleman's hat resembles a flower-pot set on 
a round table, or a tumbler on a Chinese gong. Two feet is a 
common diameter, thus making a periphery of six feet. The top 
or cone, which rises nine inches higher, is only three inches 
wide. This chimney-like superstructure serves as ornament and 
ventilator. Its purpose is not to encase the head, for underneath 
the brim is a tight-fitting skull-cap, which rests on the head and 
is held on by padded ties under the ears. The average rim for 
ordinary people, however, is about six inches in radius. The 
huge umbrella-hat of bleached bamboo is worn by gentlemen in 
mourning. After death it is solemnly placed on the bier, and 
forms a conspicuous object at the funeral. The native name for 
hat is hat or kat-si. 

The usual material is bamboo, split to the fineness of a thread, 
and woven so as to resemble horse-hair. The fabric is then var- 
nished or lacquered, and becomes perfectly weather-proof, resisting 
sun and rain, but not wind. The prevalence of cotton clothing, 
easily soaked and rendered uncomfortable, requires the ample pro- 
tection for the back and shoulders, which these umbrella-Hke 
hats furnish. In heavy rain, the kat-no is worn, that is, a cone 
of oiled paper, fixed on the hat in the shape of a funnel. Indeed, 
the umbrella in Corea is rather for a symbol of state and dignity 
than for vulgar use, and is often adorned with knobs and strips. 
Quelpart Island is the home of the hatters, whose fashionable 
wares supply the dandies and dignitaries of the capital and of the 
peninsula. The highest officers of the government have the cone 
truncated or rounded at the vertex, and surmounted by a little 
figure of a crane in polished silver, very handsome and durable. 
This long-legged bird is a symbol of civil office. " To confer the 
hat," means as much to an officer high in favor at the court of 
Seoul as to a cardinal in the Vatican, only the color is black, not 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 273 

red. It is Corean etiquette to keep the hat on, and in this respect, 
as well as in their broad brims, the hermits resemble the Quakers. 
Marriage and mourning are denoted also by the hat. 

A variety of materials is employed by other classes. Soldiers 
wear large black or brown felt hats, resembhng Mexican som- 
breros, which are adorned with red horse-hair or a peacock's 
feather, swung on a swivel button. 

Suspended from the sides, over the ears and around the neck, 
are strings of round balls of blue porcelain, comeUan, amber, or 
what resembles kauri gum. Sometimes these ornaments are tubu- 
lar, reminding one of the millinery of a cardinal's hat. 

For the common people, plaited straw or rushes of varied 
shapes serve for summer, while in winter shaggy caps of lynx, 
woK, bear, or deer-skin are common, made into Havelock, Astrac- 
han, Japanese, and other shapes, some resembling wash-bowls, 
some being fluted or fan-like, winged, sock-shaped, or made Hke 
a nightcap. Variety seems to be the fashion. 

The head-dress of the court nobles differs from that of the 
vulgar as much as the Pope's tiara differs from a cardinal's 
rubrum. It is a crown or helmet, which, eschewing brim, rises in 
altitude to the proportions of a mitre. "Without earstrings or 
necklaces of beads, it is yet highly ornamental. One of these 
consists of a cap, with a sort of gable at the top. Another has six 
lofty curving folds or volutes set in it. On another are designs 
from the pa-kwa, or sixty-four mystic diagrams, which are sup- 
posed to be sacred symbols of the Confucian philosophy, and of 
which fortune-tellers make great use. 

The wardrobe of the gentry consists of the ceremonial and the 
house dress. The former, as a rule, is of fine silk, and the latter 
of coarser silk or cotton. These " gorgeous Corean dresses " are 
of pink, blue, and other rich colors. The official robe is a long 
garment Hke a wrapper, with loose, baggy sleeves. This is em- 
broidered with the stork or phoenix for civil, and with the kirin, 
Hon, or tiger for miHtary officers. Buttons are unknown and 
form no part of a Corean' s attire, male or female, thus greatly re- 
ducing the labor of the wives and mothers who ply the needle, 
which in Corea has an "ear" instead of an "eye." Strings and 
girdles, and the shifting of the main weight of the clothing to the 
shoulders, take the place of these convenient, but fugitive, ad- 
juncts to the Western costume. There are few tailors' shops, the 
women of each household making the family outfit. 
18 



274 COREA. 

Soldiers in full dress wear a sleeveless, open surcoat for dis- 
play. The under dress of both sexes is a short jacket with tight 
sleeves, which for men reaches to the thighs, and for women only 
to the waist, and a pair of drawers reaching from waist to ankle, 
a little loose all the way down for the men, and tied at the ankles, 
but for the women made tight and not tied. The females wear a 
petticoat over this garment, so that the Coreans say they dress like 
Western women, and foreign-made hosiery and under-garments 
are in demand. Although they have a variety of articles of ap- 
parel easily distinguishable to the native eye, yet their general 
style of costume is that of the wrapper, stiff, wide, and inflated 
with abundant starch in summer, but cHnging and baggy in win- 
ter. The rule is tightness and economy for the working, ampli- 
tude and richness of material for the affluent, classes. The women 
having no pockets in their dresses, wear a little bag suspended 
from their girdle. This is worn on the right side, attached by 
cords. These contain their bits of jewelry, scissors, knife, a tiger's 
claw for luck, perfume-bottle or sachet, a tiny chess-board in gold 
or silver, etc. Besides the rings on their fingers the ladies wear 
hair-pins of gold ornamented with bulbs or figures of birds. Many 
of them dust pun, or white powder, on their faces, and employ 
various other cosmetics, which are kept in their kiong-tai, or mir- 
ror toilet-stands ; in which also may be their so-hak, or book con- 
taining rules of politeness. 

The general type of costume is that of China under the Ming 
dynasty. To a Chinaman a Corean looks antiquated, a curiosity 
in old clothes ; a Japanese at a little distance, in the twilight, is 
reminded of ghosts, or the snowy heron of the rice-fields, while 
to the American the Corean swell seems compounded chiefly of 
bed-clothes, and in his most elaborate costume to be still in his 
under-garments. 

Plenty of starch in summer, and no stint of cotton in winter, 
are the needs of the Corean. His white dress makes his com- 
plexion look darker than it really is. The monotonous dazzle of 
bleached garments is relieved by the violet robes of the magis- 
trate, the dark blue for the soldiers, and lighter shades of that 
color in the garb of the middle class ; the blue strip which edges 
the coat of the literary graduates, and the pink and azure clothes 
of the children. Less agreeable is the nearness which dispels 
illusion. The costume, which seemed snowy at a distance, is seen 
to be dingy and dirty, owing to an entire ignorance of soap. 



HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 



275 



The Corean dress, though simpler than the Chinese, is not 
entirely devoid of ornament. The sashes are often of handsome 
blue silk or brocaded stuff. The official girdles^ or flat belts a few 
inches wide, have clasps of gold, silver, or rhinoceros horn, and 
are decorated with polished ornaments of gold or silver. For 
magistrates of the three higher ranks these belts are set with blue 
stones ; for those of the fourth and fifth grade with white stones^ 
and for those below the fifth with a substance resembling horn. 
Common girdles are of cotton, hemp cloth, or rope. 

Fans are also a mark of rank, being made of various materials, 




Gentlemen's Garments and Dress Patterns. 

especially silk or cloth, stretched on a frame. The fan is an in- 
strument of etiquette. To hide the face with one is an act of 
politeness. The man in mourning must have no other kind than 
that in which the pin or rivet is of cow's horn. Oiled paper fans 
serve a variety of purposes. In another kind, the ribs of the 
frame are bent back double. The finer sort for the nobility are 
gorgeously inlaid with pearl or nacre. 

A kind of flat wand or tablet, seen in the hands of nobles, 
ostensibly to set down orders of the sovereign, is made of ivory 
for officers above, and of wood for those below the fourth grade. 



276 COREA. 

Another badge of office is the little wand, half way between a 
toy whip and a Mercury's caduceus, of black lacquered wood, with 
cords of green silk. This is carried by civil officers, and may be 
the original of the Japanese baton of command, made of lacquered 
wood with pendant strips of paper. 

Canes are carried by men of the literary or official class when 
in mourning. These tall staves, which, from the decks of Euro- 
pean vessels sailing along the coast, have often looked like spears, 
are the sang-changt or smooth bamboo staves, expressive of cere- 
monial grief, and nothing more. 

As the Coreans have no pockets, they make bags, girdles, and 
their sleeves serve instead. The women wear a sort of reticule 
hung at the belt, and the men a smoking outfit, consisting of an 
oval bag to hold his flint and steel, some fine-cut tobacco, and a 
long, narrow case for his pipe. 

Foot-gear is either of native or of Chinese make. The laborer 
contents himself with sandals woven from rice-straw, which usu- 
ally last but a few days. A better sort is of hempen twine or rope, 
with many strands woven over the top of the foot. A man in 
mourning can wear but four cords on the upper part. Socks are 
too expensive for the poor, except in the winter. Shoes made of 
cotton are often seen in the cities, having hempen or twine soles. 
The low shoes of cloth, or velvet, and cowhide, upturned at the 
toe, worn by officials, are imported from China. Small feet do 
not seem to be considered a beauty, and the foot-binding of the 
Chinese is unknown in Cho-sen, as in Japan, 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MOURNING AND BURIAL. 

The fashion of mourning, the proper place and time to shed 
tears and express grief according to regulations, are rigidly pre- 
scribed in an official treatise or " Guide to Mourners," published 
by the government. The corpse must be placed in a coffin of 
very thick wood, and preserved during many months in a special 
room prepared and ornamented for this purpose. It is proper to 
weep only in this death -chamber, but this must be done three or 
four times daily. Before entering it, the mourner must don a 
special weed, which consists of a gray cotton frock coat, torn, 
patched, and as much soiled as possible. The girdle must be of 
twisted straw and silk, made into a rope of the thickness of the 
wrist. Another cord, the thickness of the thumb, is wound 
round the head, which is covered with dirty linen, each of the 
rope's ends falling upon the cheek. A special kind of sandals 
is worn, and a big knotty stick completes the costume of woe. 
In the prescribed weeds the mourner enters the death-chamber 
in the morning on rising, and before each meal. He carries a little 
table filled with food, which he places upon a tray at the side of 
the coffin. The person who is master of the mourners presides 
at the ceremonies. Prostrate, and struck by the stick, he utters 
dolorous groans, sounding " ai-ko " if for a parent. For other rela- 
tives he groans out "oi, oi." According to the noise and length 
of the groans and weeping, so will the good opinion of the public 
be. The lamentations over, the mourner retires, doffs the mourn- 
ing robes, and eats his food. At the new and the full moon, all 
the relatives are invited and expected to assist at the ceremonies. 
These practices continue more or less even after burial, and at 
intervals during several years. Often a noble will go out to weep 
and kneel at the tomb, passing a day, and even a night, in this 
position. In some instances, mourners have built a little house 



278 COREA. 

before the grave, and watched there for years, thus "winning a 
high reputation for filial piety. 

Among the poor, who have not the means to provide a death- 
chamber and expensive mourning, the coffin is kept outside their 
houses covered with mats until the time of sepulture. 

Though cremation, or "burying in the fire," is known in 
Cho-sen, the most usual form of disposing of the dead is by 
inhumation. Children are wrapped up in the clothes and bed- 
ding in which they die, and are thus buried. As unmarried per- 
sons are reckoned as children, their shroud and burial are the 
same. "With the married and adult, the process is more costly, 
and the ceremonial more detailed and prolonged. This, which is 
described very fully in Eoss' "Corea," and with which Hamel's 
curt notes agree, consists of minute ceremonial and mourning 
among the living and the washing, combing, nail-paring, robing, 
and laying out in state of the dead, with calling of the spirits, 
and with screens, lights, and offerings, according to Confucian 
ritual. In many interesting features, the most ancient rites of 
China have survived in the peninsula after they have become 
obsolete in the former country. The very old tombs opened, 
and the painted coffins, coated with many layers of silicious 
paint, dug up near Shanghai recently, are much like those of the 
Coreans. 

The coffin, which fits the body, is made air-tight with wax, 
resin, or varnish, and is borne on a bier to the grave by men who 
make this their regular business. Often there are two coffins, one 
inside the other. Sons follow the body of their father on foot, 
relatives ride in palanquins or on horseback. Prominent at the 
head of the procession is the red standard containing the titles 
and honors of the deceased. This banner, or sa-jen, has two points 
on it to frighten away the spirits, and at the funeral of a high 
officer, a man wears a hideous mask for the same purpose. When 
there are no titles, only the name of the deceased is inscribed 
upon the banner. 

The selection of a proper site for a tomb is a matter of pro- 
found solicitude, time, and money ; for the geomancers must be 
consulted with a fee. The pung-sui superstition requires for the 
comfort of both living and dead that the right site should be 
chosen. Judging from the number of times the word "moun- 
tain " enters into terms relating to burial, most interments are 
on the hillsides. If these are not done properly, trouble will 



MOURNING AND BURIAL. 279 

arise, and the bones must tlien be dug up, collected, and re- 
buried, often at heavy expense. Thousands of professional cheats 
and seK-duped people live by working upon the feelings of the 
bereaved through this superstition. 

The tombs of the poor consist only of the grave and a low 
mound of earth. These mounds, subjected to the forces of na- 
ture, and often trampled upon by cattle, disappear after the lapse 
of a few years, and oblivion settles over the spot. 

With the richer class monuments are of stone, sometimes 
neat or even imposing, sometimes grotesque. Some, as the pi- 
popi, are shaped like a house or miniature temple ; or, two stones, 
cut in the form of a ram and a horse respectively, are placed 
before the sepulchre. The man-tu, " gazing headstone," consists 
of two monoHths or columns of masonry, flanking the tomb 
on either side, so that the soul of the dead, changed into a bird, 
may repose peacefully. In the graveyards are many tombs paved 
with granite slabs around the temple model, but for the most 
part a Corean cemetery is filled with little obelisks, or tall, square 
columns, either pointed at the top or surmounted with the 
effigy of a human head, or a rudely sculptured stone image, 
which strangely reminds a foreigner of "patience on a monu- 
ment, smiling at grief." This apparition of a human head 
rising above the tall grass of the burial-ground may be the 
original of Japanese pictures of the ghosts and spirits which seem 
to rise dark and vnndblown out of the wet grass. Often the 
carving in Corean gTave-yards is so rude as to be almost indis- 
tinguishable. 

Mourning is of many degrees and lengths, and is betokened 
by dress, abstinence from food and business, visits to the tomb, 
offerings, tablets, and many visible indications, detailed even to 
absurdity. Pure, or nearly pure white is the mourning color, as 
a contrast to red, the color of rejoicing. Even the rivets of the 
fan, the strings on the shoes, and the carrying of a staff in addi- 
tion to the mourning-hat, betoken the uniform of woe. 

When noblemen don the peaked hat, which covers the face as 
well as the head, they are as dead to the world — not to be spoken 
to, molested, or even arrested if charged with crime. This Corean 
mourning hat proved "the helmet of salvation" to Christians, and 
explains the safety of the French missionaries who lived so long 
in disguise, unharmed in the country where the police were as 
lynxes and hounds ever on their tr^/^k. The Jesuits were not 



280 COREA. 

slow to see the wonderful shelter promised for them, and availed 
themselves of it at once and always. 

The royal sepulchres within the peninsula have attracted more 
than one unlawful descent upon the shores of Cho-sen. The 
various dynasties of sovereigns during the epoch of the Three 
Kingdoms in the old capitals of these states, the royal lines of 
Kokorai at Ping-an, of Korai at Sunto, and of the ruling house at 
Seoul, have made Corea during her two thousand years of history 
rich in royal tombs. These are in various parts of the country, 
and those which are known are under the care of the government. 

Are these mausoleums filled with gold or jewels? Foreign 
grave-robbers have believed so, and shown their faith by their 
works, as we shall see. French priests in the country have said 
so. The ancient Chinese narratives descriptive of the customs of 
the Fuyu people, confirm the general impression. Without having 
the facts at hand to demonstrate what eager foreigners have 
believed, we know that vast treasures have been spent upon 
the decoration of the royal sepulchres, and the erection of me- 
morial buildings over them, and that the fear of their violation 
by foreign or native outlaws has been for centuries ever be- 
fore the Corean people. That these fears have too often been 
justified, we shall find when we read of that memorable year, 
A.D. 1866. The profuse vocabulary of terms relating. to burial, 
mourning, and memorial tablets in Corea show their intense 
loyalty to the Confucian doctrines, the power of superstition, 
and the shocking waste of the resources of the Hving upon the 
dead. 

The voluble Corean envoys when in Tokio, visited the Naval 
College, and on learning that in certain emergencies the students 
from distant provinces were not allowed to go home to attend the 
funeral of their parents, nor to absent themselves from duty on 
account of mourning, were amazed beyond measure, and for a 
few moments literally speechless from surprise. It is hard for a 
Corean to understand the sayings of Jesus to the disciple who 
asked, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father," and 
"Let the dead bury their dead." 

From the view-point of political economy, this lavish expense 
of time, energy, money, and intellect upon corpses and super- 
stition is beneficial. Without knowing of Malthus or his theories, 
the Cho-senese have hit upon a capital method of limiting popu- 
lation, and keeping the country in a state of chronic poverty. 



MOURNING AND BURIAL. 281 

The question has been asked the writer, "How can a people, pent 
in a little mountainous peninsula like Corea, exist for centuries 
without overpopulating their territory?" 

Wars, famine, pestilence, ordinary poverty answer the question 
in part. The absurd and rigorous rules of mourning, requiring 
frightful expense, postponement of marriage to young people — 
who even when betrothed must mourn three years for parents and 
grandparents, actual and expected, the impoverishing of the peo- 
ple, and the frequent hindrances to marriage at the proper season, 
serve to keep down population. This fact is an often chosen sub- 
ject for native anecdotes and romances. The vexations and delays 
often caused by the long periods of idle mourning required by 
etiquette, are weU illustrated by the following story, from the 
" Grammaire Coreene," which is intended to show the sympathy 
of the king Cheng-chong (1776 to 1800) with his subjects. It is 
entitled "A Trait of Koyal Solicitude." 

It was about New Year's that Cheng-chong walked about here 
and there within the palace enclosure. Having come to the place 
reserved for the candidates at the literary examinations, he looked 
through a crack in the gate. The competitors had nearly all gone 
away to spend the New Year hoHdays at home, and there re- 
mained only two of them, who were talking together. 

"WeU, aU the others have gone off to spend New Year's at 
home ; isn't it deplorable that we two, having no place to go to, 
must be nailed here?" 

"Yes, truly," said the other ; "you have no longer either wife, 
children, or house. How is this ? " 

"Listen to my story," said the first man. "My parents, 
thinking of my marriage, had arranged my betrothal, but some 
time before the preparations were concluded, my future grand- 
father died, and it became necessary to wait three years. Hardly 
had I put off mourning, when I was called on to lament the death 
of my poor father. I was now compelled to wait still three years. 
These three years finished, behold my mother-in-law who was to 
be died, and three years passed away. Finally, I had the misfor- 
tune to lose my poor mother, which required me to wait again 
three years. And so, three times four — a dozen years — have 
elapsed, during which we have waited the one for the other. By 
this time she, who was to be my wife, feU ill. As she was upon 
the point of death, I went to make her a visit. My intended 
brother-in-law came to see me, foimd me, and said, 'Although 



282 



COREA. 



the ceremonies of marriage have not been made, they may cer- 
tainly consider you as married, therefore come and see her.' 
Upon his invitation I entered her house, but we had hardly blown 
a puff of smoke, one before the other, than she died. 

"Seeing this, I have no more wished even to dream at night. 




-j^-rtCI'ifL-liililli,. 



Thatched House near Seoul. (From a photograph, 1876.) 



I am not yet married. You may understand, then, why I have 
neither wife, children, nor home." 

In his turn the other thus spoke : " My house was extremely 
poor. Our diet looked like fasting. We had no means of freeing 
ourselves from embarrassment. When the day of the examination 
came I presented myself. During my absence my wife contrived 



MOURNING AND BURIAL. 283 

in such a manner, that putting in the brazier a farthing's worth 
of charcoal, she set a handful of rice to cook in a skillet, and set- 
tled herself to wait for me. She served this to me every time I 
came back. But I never obtained a degree. The day on which 
I was at last received as a bachelor of arts, on returning after 
examination, I found that she had as before lighted the charcoal, 
put to boil a dish of soup, and seating herself before the fire, she 
waited. In this position she was dead. 

" At sight of this my grief was without bounds. Having no 
desire to contract a new union, I have never re-married." 

Hearing these narratives, Cheng-chong was touched with pity. 
Entering the palace, seating himself upon the throne, and having 
had the two scholars brought in, he said to them : 

" All the other scholars have gone to their homes to spend 
New Year's. Why have not you two gone also?" They an- 
swered, "Your servants having no house to go to, remained 
here." 

"What does that mean?" said Cheng-cliong. "The fowls 
and the dogs, oxen and horses have shelter. The birds have also 
a hole to build their nests in. Can it be that men have no dwell- 
ing? There should be a reason for this. Speak plainly." One 
of the scholars answered : " Your servant's affairs are so-and-so. 
I have come even till now without re-marriage. It is because I 
have neither wife, child, nor family." 

The story being exactly like that which he had heard before, 
the king cried out, " Too bad ! " 

Then addressing the other, he put this question : " And you, 
how is it that you ate reduced to this condition ?" He answered . 
" My story is almost the same." 

" What do you wish ? Speak ! " replied the king. 

" The circumstances being such and such, I am at this mo- 
ment without wife and without food. That is my condition." 

As there was in all this nothing different from the preceding, 
the king, struck with compassion, bestowed upon them imme- 
diately lucrative offices. 

If he had not examined for himself, how could he have been 
able to know such unfortunate men, and procure for them so 
happy a position in the world? In truth, the goodness of his 
Majesty Cheng-chong has become celebrated. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 

Six public roads of the first class traverse the peninsula and 
centre at the capital. They are from twenty to thirty feet in 
width, with ditches at the side for drainage. One of these begins 
near the ocean, in Chulla Do, and in general follows the shores of 
the YeUow Sea through three provinces to Tong-chin opposite 
Kang-wa Island, and enters the capital by branch roads. Another 
highway passes through the interior of the three provinces bor- 
dering the Yellow Sea, and enters Seoul by the southern gate. 
Hamel and his fellow-captives journeyed by this road. The road 
by which the annual embassy reaches Peking, after leaving the 
capital, passes through Sunto and Ping -an and Ai-chiu, crosses the 
Neutral Strip, and enters Manchuria for Peking by way of Muk- 
den. This was the beaten track of the French missionaries, and 
the shipwrecked men from the United States and Japan, and is 
the military road from China. It is well described, with a good 
map, in Koei -Ling's "Journal of a Mission into Corea," which 
Mr. P. Scherzer has translated for us. 

From Fusan and Tong-nai, in the southeast, Seoul is reached 
by no less than three roads. One strikes westward through 
Chung-chong, and joins the main road coming up from the south. 
Another following the Nak-tong River basin, crosses the moun- 
tains to Chulla, and enters Seoul by the south gate. Eight river 
crossings must be made by this road, over which Konishi marched 
in 1593. The third route takes a more northerly trend, follows the 
sea-coast to Urusan, and passing through Kion-chiu, enters the 
capital by the east gate. 

The fifth great road issuing from the north gate of the capital 
passes into Kang-wen, and thence upward to Gensan, and to the 
frontiers at the Tumen River. 

The roads of the second class are eight or nine feet wide, and 
without side ditches. They ramify through all the provinces, but 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.-CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 286 

are especially numerous in the five southern. The three northern 
circuits, owing to their mountainous character, are but poorly 
furnished with highways, and these usually follow the rivers. 

The third class roads, which are nothing more than bridle- 
paths, or trails, connect the villages. 

The hilly nature of the country, together with the Asiatic 
apathy to bestowing much care on the public highways, makes 
travelling difficult. Inundations are frequent, though the water 
subsides quickly. Hence in summer the road-beds are dust, and 
in winter a slough of mud. Macadamized, or paved roads, are 
hardly known, except for short lengths. Few of the wide rivers 
are bridged, which necessitates frequent fordings and ferriages. 
Stone bridges, built with arches, are sometimes seen over streams 
not usually inundated, but few of the wooden bridges are over 
one hundred and eighty feet long. 

In one respect the roads are well attended to. The distances 
are well marked. At every ri is a small, and at every three ri a 
large mound, siu-mounted with an inscribed post or " mile-stone," 
called chang-sung. They are two, six, and even ten feet in length. 

In ancient times, it is said, there was a man named Chang- 
sung, who kiUed his servant and wife. When punished, his head 
was placed on a small mound. Legend even declares that it was 
successively exposed on all the distance mounds in the kingdom. 
This is said to be the origin of the bournes or distance-mounds, 
which suggests, as Mr. Adams has shown, the termini of the 
Eomans. "When of stone, they are called pio-sek, but they are 
often of wood, rudely carved or hacked out of a whole tree by an 
axe into the exaggerated form of a man, and are of a ludicrous 
or absurd appearance. The face is meant to be that of the mur- 
derer Chang-sung. The author of " A Forbidden Land " mistook 
these for "village idols," and was surprised to find the boys in 
some cases sacrilegiously kicking about some that had rotted 
down or fallen. The " gods of the roads " may, however, have 
their effiges, which are worshipped or profaned. 

All distances in every direction are measured from the front 
gate of the magistrates' offices, the standard of all being the palace 
at Seoul. Not the least interesting sights to the traveller are the 
memorial stones set up and inscribed with a view to commemo- 
rate local or national worthies, or the events of war, famine, or 
philanthropy. The Coreans are "idolaters of letters," and the 
erection of memorial tablets or columns occasionally becomes a 



286 COREA. 

passiuii. Sometimes the inscriptions are the means of stirring up 
patriotism, as the following inscription shows. It was graven on 
a stone in front of a castle erected after the French and American 
expeditions, and was copied by a Japanese correspondent. 

"It is nothing else than selling the kingdom into slavery, in 
order to avoid war, to make peace without fighting when any 
Western nation comes to attack it ; such should never be done 
even by our descendants thousands of years hence." 

In this country, in which sumptuary laws prevent the humbler 
classes from travelling on horseback, and where wagons and 
steam-roads are unknown, the roads are Kvely with numerous 
foot-passengers. Palanquins are used by the better classes and 
the wealthy. The rambling hfe of many of the people, the goodly 
numbers of that character not unknown in Christendom — the 
tramp — the necessities of trade, literary examinations, government 
service, and holy pilgrimages, prevent too many weeds from grow- 
ing in the highways. In travelling over the high roads one meets 
a variety of characters that would satisfy a Corean Dickens, or 
the Japanese author who wrote the Tokaido Hizakurige (Leg-hair, 
i.e., " Shanks' mare," on the East Sea Koad). Bands of students 
on their way to the capital or provincial literary examinations, 
some roystering youths in the fuU flow of spirits, are hastening 
on, others, gray-headed and solemn, are wending their way to fail 
for the twentieth time. Pompous functionaries in umbrella-hats, 
on horseback, before whom ordinary folks dismount or kneel 
or bow, brush past with noisy attendants. Pilgrims in pious garb 
are on their way to some holy mountain or famous shrine, men to 
pray for success in business, women to beseech the gods for off- 
spring. Here hobbles along the lame or rheumatic, or the pale- 
faced invalid is borne to the hot springs. Here is a party of 
pic-nickers, or poets intent on the joys of drink, verse, and scenery. 
Here a troop of strolling players or knot of masqueraders are ir 
peripatetic quest of a livelihood, toihng fearfully hard in order t^ 
escape settled industry. Nobles in mourning pass with their 
faces invisible. Postal slaves, women doing the work of express 
agents in forwarding parcels, pass the merchant with his loaded 
pack-horses returning from Sunto, or going to Gensan. There a 
packman is doing horse's work in transportation. Here an ox 
laden with brushwood is led by a woman. Beggars, corpses, 
kang-si, or men dead of hunger in times of famine, make the 
lights and shadows of life on the road. 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 287 

There are other methods of travel besides those of horseback, 
on foot, and sedan chair, for oxen are often straddled by the 
men, and poor women travel on an ox, in a sort of improvised 
palanquin having four poles recurved to centre and covered with 
robe or cloak. In winter, among the mountains not only in the 
north, but even in Chulla, the people go on racquettes or snow- 
shoes. These are in shape like a battledore, and are several feet 
long. At regular distances are yek, or relays or offices, at which 
sit clerks or managers under government auspices, with hered- 
itary slaves or serfs, porters, guides, mail-couriers, and pack- 
horses. These await the service of the traveller, especially of 
official couriers, the finer beasts being reserved for journeying 
dignitaries. 

All these throughout a certain district, of which there are sev- 
eral in each province, are under the direction of the Tsal-peng, or 
Director of Posts. Kiung-sang, the province having the greatest 
number of roads, has also the best equipment in the way of post- 
officers, relays, and horses. The following table from Dallet shows 
the equipment of the eight provinces : 



Kiung-Kei . . 
Chung-chong 

ChuUa 

Kiung-sang. . 

Kang-wen 

Wang hei 

Ham-kiung.. 
Ping-an .... 



Post Superin- 
tendentB. 



6 
5 
6 
11 
4 
3 
3 
2 

40 



Relays. 



47 

62 

53 

115 

78 
28 
58 
30 

471 



Horses. 



449 
761 
506 
1,700 
447 
396 
792 
311 

5,362 



Yet with this provision for locomotion, the country is very 
deficient in houses for public accommodation. Inns are to be 
found only along the great highways, and but rarely along the 
smaller or sequestered roads. This want arises, perhaps, not so 
much from the poverty of the people, as from the fact that their 
proverbial hospitality does away with the necessity of numerous 
inns. The Coreans have been so often represented, or rather mis- 



288 COREA. 

represented, as inhospitable, fierce, and rude by foreigners, that 
to give an inside view of them as seen through information gath- 
ered from the French missionaries in Corea is a pleasant task. 
From them we may learn how much the white-coated peninsulars 
are hke their cousins, the Japanese, and that human nature in 
good average quantity and quahty dwells under the big hats of 
the Coreans. The traveller usually takes his provisions along with 
him, but he need not eat it out-doors. As he sits along the way- 
side, he will be invited into some house to warm his food. When 
obliged to go some distance among the mountains to cut wood or 
make charcoal, a man is sure to find a hut in which he can lodge. 
He has only to bring his rice. The villagers will cook it for him, 
after adding the necessary pickles or sauces. Even the oxen, 
except during the busy season, are easily obtained on loan. 

The great virtue of the Coreans is their innate respect for and 
daily practice of the laws of human brotherhood. Mutual assist- 
ance and generous hospitality among themselves are distinctive 
national traits. In all the important events of life, such as mar- 
riages and funerals, each one makes it his duty to aid the family 
most directly interested. One will charge himself with the duty 
of making purchases ; others with arranging the ceremonies. The 
poor, who can give nothing, carry messages to friends and rela- 
tives in the near or remote villages, passing day and night on foot 
and giving their labors gratuitously. To them, the event is not a 
mere personal matter, but an affair of public interest. 

When fire, flood, or other accident destroys the house of one 
of their number, neighbors make it a duty to lend a hand to re- 
build. One brings stone, another wood, another straw. Each, in 
addition to his gifts in material, devotes two or three days' work 
gratuitously. A stranger, coming into a village, is always assisted 
to build a dwelling. 

Hospitality is considered as one of the most sacred duties. It 
would be a grave and shameful thing to refuse a portion of one's 
meal with any person, known or unknown, who presents himself 
at eating-time. Even the poor laborers, who take their noon-meal 
at the side of the roads, are often seen sharing their frugal nour- 
ishment with the passer-by. Usually at a feast, the neighbors 
consider themselves invited by right and custom. The poor man 
whose duty calls him to make a journey to a distant place does 
not need to make elaborate preparatons. His stick, his pipe, 
some clothes in a packet hung from his shoulder, some cash in 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 289 

his purse, if he has one, and his outfit is complete. At night, 
instead of going to a hotel with its attendant expense, he enters 
some house, whose exterior room is open to any comer. There he 
is sure to find food and lodging for the night. Eice will be shared 
with the stranger, and, at bed-time, a corner of the floor-mat will 
serve for a bed, while he may rest his head on a foot-length of the 
long log of wood against the wall, which serves as a pillow. Even 
should he delay his journey for a day or two, little or nothing to 
his discredit will be harbored by his hosts. In Corea, the old 
proverb concerning fish and company after three days does not 
seem to hold good. 

As may be imagined, such a system is prolific in breeding beg- 
gars, tramps, blackmailers, and lazy louts, who "sponge" upon 
the benevolently disposed. Eich families are often bored by these 
seK-invited parasites, w^ho eat with unblushing cheek at their 
tables for weeks at a time. They do not even disdain — nay, they 
often clamor for — clothing as well. To refuse would only result 
in bringing down calumny and injury. Peddlers, strolling play- 
ers, astrologers, etc., likewise avail themselves of the opportu- 
nities, and act as plundering harpies. Often whole bands go 
round quartering themselves on the villages, and sometimes the 
government is called upon to interpose its authority and protect 
the people. 

Corea is full of Micawbers, men who are as prodigal as avari- 
cious, who when they have plenty of money, scatter it quickly. 
When flush they care only to live in style, to treat their friends, to 
satisfy their caprices. When poverty comes, they take it without 
complaint, and wait till the wheel of fortune turns again to give 
them better days. When by any process they have made some 
gain by finding a root of ginseng, a bit of gold ore, a vein of 
crystal, what matters it ? Let the future take care of itseK. Hence 
it happens that the roads are full of men seeking some stroke of 
luck, hoping to discover at a distance what they could not find at 
home, to light upon some treasure not yet dug up or to invent 
some new means of making money. People forever waiting for 
something to turn up emigrate from one village to another, stop a 
year or two, and then tramp on, seeking better luck, but usually 
finding worse. 

Strolling companies of mountebanks, players and musicians, in 
numbers of five, six, or more, abound in Cho-sen. They wander 
up and down through the eight circuits, and, in spring and sum- 
19 



290 COREA. 

mer, earn a precarious and vagabond livelihood. Their reputation 
among the vO^iigers is none of the best, being about on a par with 
that of the gypsies, or certain gangs of railroad surveyors of our 
own ccmntiy. They often levy a sort of blackmail upon the peo- 
ple. They are jugglers, acrobats, magicians, marionette players, 
and performers on musical instruments. Some of them display 
an astonishing amount of cleverness and sleight of hand in their 
feats. In the villages crowds of gaping urchins are their chief 
spectators, but in the large cities they are invited to private 
houses to give exhibitions and are paid for it. When about to 
begin a performance, they secure attention by whistling on the 
nail of their little finger. On the occasion of the anniversary of 
some happy event, a public fete day, a marriage or a social com- 
pany, the lack of what we call society — that is, social relations 
between gentlemen and ladies — is made up, and amusement is 
furnished by these players, engaged for an evening or two. The 
guests fully appreciate the "hired music," and "best talent" 
thus secured for a variety entertainment. The company of one 
class of these "men of society," or pang-tang, a kind of "profes- 
sional diner-out," is so desirable that several are taken along by 
the ambassadors to China to amuse them on their long and tedi- 
ous journey, especially at nights. The chang-pu are character- 
comedians, who serenade the baccalaureates that have passed suc- 
cessfully the government examinations. They play the flute and 
other instruments of music, forming the escort which accompanies 
the graduate on his visits to relatives and officials. A band of 
performers is always attached to the suite of ambassadors to 
China and Japan, or when visiting a foreign vessel. 

A character common to Corea and Japan is the singing-girl, 
who is also a great aid in making Hfe endurable to the better 
class of Coreans, whose chief business it is to kill time. The 
singing-girl is the one poem and picture in the street life of the 
humbler classes, whose poverty can rarely, if ever, allow them to 
purchase her society or enjoy her charms and accompUshments. 
Socially, her rank is low, very low. She is herself the child of 
poverty and toil. Her parents are poor people, who gladly give 
up their daughter, if of pretty face and form, to a life of doubtful 
morals, in order that she may thereby earn her own support and 
assist her parents. She herself gladly leaves the drudgery of the 
kitchen, and the abject meanness of the hovel, to shine in the 
palace and the mansion. Her dress is of finest fabric, her luxu- 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 291 

riant black hair is bound with skill and grace, her skin is whit- 
ened by artificial cosmetics as far as possible, and with powder, 
paint, and pomatum, she spends much of her Hfe before the look- 
ing-glass, studying in youth to increase, and in womanhood to 
retain, her charms. At home, she practises her music, occasionally 
enlivening a party of her humble neighbors. As she passes along 
the street, fresh, clean, bright, and pretty, she may dispense smiles 
for popularity's sake, but her errand is to the houses of the 
wealthy, and especially to the official, who, for his own amusement 
as he dines alone, or for his friends in social gathering, may employ 
from two to twenty geishas (as the Japanese call them). Most Co- 
rean cities have these geishas, who form themselves into a sort of 
guild for fixed prices, etc. Often they organize complete bands or 
choirs, by which music may be had in mass and volume. At a feast 
they serve the wine, fill and pass the dishes, and preside generally 
at the table. When eating has fairly begun, they sing (chant), play 
the guitar, recite in pantomine or vocally, and furnish general 
amusement. The dancing is usually not of an immoral character. 
Such a life, however, amid feast and revel, wine and flattery, 
makes sad wreck of many of them, morally and physically. A 
large proportion of the most beautiful girls become concubines to 
wealthy men or officials, or act as ladies of the chamber (brevet 
wives) to young men and widowers. Not a few join the business 
of prostitutes with that of musicians. Nevertheless, it is quite 
possible for a respectable family to enjoy a pleasant and harmless 
evening by the aid of the lively geishas. Of course, Seoul is the 
chief headquarters of the fairest and most accomplished geishas, 
who are, as a class, the best educated of their sex in Corea. 

The theatre, proper, does not seem to exist in Corea. The 
substitute and nearest approach to it is recitation in monologue of 
certain events or extracts from the standard or popular histories, 
a single individual representing the successive roles. The his- 
trionic artist pitches his tabernacle of four posts in some popular 
street or corner. He spreads mats for a roof or shade from the 
sun in front, and for a background in the rear. A platform, and 
a box to squat on, with a small reading-desk, and a cup of gin- 
gery water to refresh his palate, complete his outfit. 

A few rough benches or mats constitute all the accommodation 
for the audience. A gaping crowd soon collects around him, hiB 
auditors pull out their pipes, and refreshment venders improve 
the occasion for the chance sale of their viands. With his voice 



292 COREA. 

trained to various tones and to polite and vulgar forms of speecli, 
he wiU hold dialogues and conversations, and mimic the attitude 
and gestures of various characters. The trial of a criminal before 
a magistrate, the bastinado, a quarrel between husband and wife, 
scenes from high life and low life will be in turn rendered. He 
will imitate the grave tones and visage of the magistrate, the pit- 
eous appeals, the cries and groans and contortions of the victim 
under torture, the angry or grumbling voice of the husband, the 
shrill falsetto of the scolding shrew or the shower of tears and the 
piteous appeals of the wife. Smiles, frowns, surprise, sorrow, and 
all the emotions are simulated, and the accompaniment of voice 
is kept up with jokes, puns, bon-mots, irony, or well-expressed 
pathos. In short, the reciter is a theatrical stock company, and a 
band of minstrels, rolled into one person. For the use of begin- 
ners, and the mediocrity of the profession, there are a number of 
"jest-books," collections of jokes and anecdotes, more or less 
threadbare, and of varying moral quahty, from which speakers 
may prime for the occasion. With the advanced of the profession, 
however, most of the smart sayings are original and off-hand. 
The habitu6s of the booths have their " star " favorite, as theatre- 
goers with us go into raptures over their actors. Able men make 
a good Hving at the business, as they " pass round the hat " to 
take up a collection in the audience. This usually comes at the 
most teUing point of the narrative, when the interest of the 
hearers is roused to the highest pitch (or when it is to be " con- 
iinued in our next," as the flash newspapers say). Sometimes the 
speaker will not go on till the collection is deemed by the tyrant 
a sufficient appreciation of his talents. In addition to their public 
street income, the best of them are often invited to perform in 
private houses, at family reunions, social parties, and as a rule, in 
visits to dignitaries by candidates who have won degrees. 

The Corean gamut, differing from the scale used in European 
countries, makes a fearful and wonderful difference in effect upon 
our ears. Some of their melodies upon the flute are plaintive 
and sweet, but most of their music is distressing to the ear and 
desolating to the air. One hearer describes their choicest pieces 
as " the most discordant sounds that ever were emitted under the 
name of music from brass tubes." Some of the flute music, how- 
ever, is very sweet. As most of the ancient music of Japan is of 
Corean origin, one can get a fair idea of the nature of the sounds 
that delight a Corean ear from the music of the imperial band of 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 29B 

Tokio, which plays the classical scores. Yet it is evident that the 
modern tunes of Seoul are not melodious to Japanese auditory 
nerves. One would think that, as the mikado's subjects "hear 
themselves as others hear them" when Corean musicians play, 
they would be delighted. On the contrary, Corean music seems 
to horrify and afflict the Japanese ear. Evidently, in the course 
of centuries the musical scales of the two countries, originally 
identical, have altered in tone and intervaL Wan-ka is the father 
of Gorean music — though the mere fact that he belonged to an- 
tiquity would secure his renown. The various stringed musical 
instruments known are the kemunko, a kind of large guitar ; the 
kanyakko, mandolin ; the ko-siul, or guitar of twenty-five strings ; 
and the five-stringed harp or violin. The wind instruments comprise 
a whole battery of flutes, long and short trumpets, while cymbals, 
drums, and other objects of percussion are numerous. Ambas- 
sadors and other high officers at home, and when on duty to 
foreign countries, are accompanied by a band of musicians. La- 
borers on government works are summoned to begin and end 
work by music, but the full effect of a musical salvo is attained at 
the opening and closing of the city gates. Then the sound is 
most distressing — or most captivating, according as the ears are 
to the manner born, or receive their first experience of what 
tortures the air may be made to vibrate. 

The chief out-door manly sport in Corea is, by excellence, that 
of archery. It is encouraged by the government for the national 
safety in war, and nobles stimulate their retainers to excellence 
by rewards. Most gentlemen have targets and arrow-walks for 
practice in their gardens. At regular times in the year contests 
of skill are held, at which archers of reputation compete, the 
expense and prizes being paid for out of the public purse. Hamel 
says the great men's retainers have nothing to do but to learn to 
shoot. The grandees rival each other in keeping the most famous 
archers, as an EngHshman might his fox-hounds or as the daimios 
of Japan formerly vied with each other in patronizing the fattest 
and most skilful wrestlers. Other manly sports are those of 
boxing and fist-fights. Young men practice the "manly art" in 
play vdth each other, and at times champions are chosen by rival 
villages and a set-to between the bruisers is the result, with more 
or less of broken heads and pulpy faces. In large cities the 
contestants may come from different wards of the same city. In 
Seoul, usually in the first month, there are some lively tussles 



294 COREA. 

between picked champions, with betting and cheering of the 
backers of either party. Often these trials of skill degenerate into 
a free fight, in which clubs and stones are used freely ; cracked 
skulls and loss of life are common. The magistrates do not 
usually interfere, but allow the froHc to spend itself. 

Another class of men worthy of notice, and identified with 
out-door life, are the sportsmen. The bird-hunters never shoot 
on the wing. They disguise themselves in skins, feathers, straw, 
etc., and lurk in some coigne of vantage to bring down the game 
that comes within their range. The skilled fowler understands 
perfectly how to imitate the cries of the various birds, particularly 
that of the pheasant calling his mate. By this means most of the 
female pheasants are captured. The call used is an iron whistle, 
shaped like the apricot-stone, and similar to that used by the 
Japanese hunters. The method of hunting the deer is as follows : 
During the months of June and July deer -horn commands a very 
high price, for it is at this season that the deer-horns are develop- 
ing, and the "spike-bucks " are special prizes. A party of three 
or four hunters is formed. They beat up the mountain sides 
during several days, and, at night, when obliged to cease for 
awhile, they have a wonderful instinct for detecting the trail of 
the game, except when the earth is too dry. Usually they come 
up to their game on the third day, which they bring down with a 
gunshot. The horn is sold to the native physicians or is exported 
to China and Japan, where hartshorn and valuable medicines are 
concocted from it. A successful deer-hunt usually enables a 
hunter to live on his profits for a good part of the year, and in 
some cases individuals make small fortunes. Those who hunt 
bears wait for the occasion when the mother bear leads her cubs 
to the seashore to feast them on the crabs. Then the hunters 
bide their time till they see the mother Hfting up the heavy rocks 
on edge, while the little cubs eat the crabs. The hunters usually 
rush forward and assault the bear, which, frightened, lets fall the 
rock, which crushes the cub. "When on the open field or shore 
they do not fire at the she-bear, unless sure of killing her. For 
the various parts of the animal good prices await the hunter who 
sells. In addition to the proceeds from hide, flesh, fat, and 
sinews, the liver and gall of the brute, supposed to possess great 
potency in medicine, are sold for their weight in silver. In 
another chapter we have written of the tiger-hunters and theii 
noble game. 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 296 

Gambling and betting are fearfully common habits in Corea, 
and kite-flying gives abundant occasion for money to change 
hands. The two months of the winter, during which the north 
wind blows, is "kite time." The large and strong kites are flown 
with skill, requiring stout cords and to be held by young men. 
A large crowd usually collects to witness the battle of the kites, 
when the kites are put through various evolutions in the air, by 
which one seeks to destroy, tear, or saw off the string of the other. 

Kesources for in-door amusement are chiefly in the form of 
gossip, story-telling, smoking, lounging, and games of hazard, 
such as chess, checkers, and backgammon. The game of chess 
is the same as that played in Japan and China. Card-playing, 
though interdicted by law, is habitual among the common people. 
The nobles look upon it as vulgar amusement beneath their dig- 
nity. The people play secretly or at night, often gambling to a 
ruinous extent. It is said that the soldiers, especially those on 
guard, and at the frontiers, are freely allowed to play cards, as 
that is the surest way to keep them awake and alert in the pres- 
ence of enemies, and as safeguards against night attacks. They 
shuffle and cut the cards as we do. Games with the hands and 
fingers, similar to those in Japan, are also well known. 

In pagan lands, where a Sabbath, or anything like it, is utterly 
uknown alike to the weary laborer, the wealthy, and the men of 
leisure, some compensation is afforded by the national and relig- 
ious holidays. These in Corea consist chiefly of the festal occa- 
sions observed in China, the feasts appropriate to the seasons, 
planting, and harvest, the Buddhist saints' anniversaries, the 
king's birthday, and the new year. 

Among the poorer classes the families celebrate the birthday 
of the head of the family only, but among the noble and wealthy, 
each member of the family is honored vrith gifts and a festal gath- 
ering of friends. There are certain years of destiny noticed with 
extra joy and congratulations, but the chief of aU is the sixty-first 
year. With us, the days of man are three score years and ten, but 
in the hermit kingdom the limit of life is three score years and 
one, and the reason is this : The Coreans divide time according to 
the Chinese cycle of sixty years, which is made up of two series of 
ten and twelve each respectively. Every year has a name after the 
zodiacal sign, or one of the five elements. The first birthday 
occurring after the entire revolution of the cycle is a very solemn 
event to a sexagenarian, and the festival commemorative of it is 



290 COREA. 

called Wan-hap. All, rich and poor, noble and vulgar, observe 
tMs day, which definitely begins old age, when man, having passed 
the acknowledged hmit of life, must remember and repose. When 
it happens — a rare event — that the sixty-first anniversary of a 
wedding finds both parties alive, there are extraordinary rejoic- 
ings, and the event is celebrated like our "diamond weddings." 
For both these feasts children and friends must strain every 
nerve, and spend all their cash to be equal to the occasion and to 
spread the table for all comers ; for at such a time, not only the 
neighbors, but often the whole country folk round are interested. 
A silk robe for the honored aged, new clothes for themselves, 
and no end of wine and good cheer for friends, acquaintances, 
hangers-on, country cousins, and strangers from afar, must be 
provided without stint. Poems are recited, games and sports 
enjoyed, minstrels sing and dance, and recitations are given. All 
come with compliments in their mouths — and a ravenous appetite. 
All must be fed and none turned away, and the children of the 
honored one must be willing to spend their last coin and econo- 
mize, or even starve, for a year afterward. It is often as dreadful 
an undertaking as a funeral pageant in other lands. In the event 
of the queen, royal mother, or king, reaching the sixty-first birth- 
day the profusion and prodigality of expense and show reaches a 
height of shameful extravagance. All the prisons are opened by 
general amnesty, and the jail-birds fly free. An extraordinary 
session of examiners is held to grant degrees. In the capital all 
the grandees present themselves before the king with gifts and 
homage. In all the rural districts, a large picture of the king is 
hung up in a noted place. The chief magistrate, preceded by 
music and followed by his satellites, and all the people proceed to 
the place and prostrate themselves before the effigy, offering their 
congratulations. In the capital the soldiers receive gifts from the 
court, and the day is a universal holiday for the entire nation. 

Almost as matter of course, the festivals are used as means of 
extortion and oppression of the people by the officials, who grind 
the masses mercilessly to provide the necessary resources for the 
waste and luxury of the capital and the court. New Year's day is 
not only the greatest of all Corean feasts in universal observance, 
but is also the only real Sabbath time of the year, when for days 
together all regular employments cease and rejoicing reigns su- 
preme. All debts must be paid and accounts squared up, absen- 
tees must return, and children away from home must rejoin the 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 297 

family. The magistrates close the tribunals, no arrests are made, 
and prisoners held to answer for slight offences are given leave of 
absence for several days, after which they report again as pris- 
oners. All work, except that of festal preparation, ought to cease 
during the last three days of the old year. It is etiquette to begin 
by visits on New Year's Eve, though this is not universal. 

On New Year's morning salutations or calls are made on 
friends, acquaintances, and superiors. To this rule there must be 
no exception, on pain of a rupture of friendly relations. The chief 
ceremony of the day is the sacrifice at the tablets of ancestors. 
Proceeding to the family tombs, if near the house, or to the special 
room or sheK in the dwelling itself, the entire family make pros- 
trations. Costly ceremonies, with incense-sticks, etc., regulated 
according to the family purse, follow. This is the most important 
filial and religious act of the year. In cases where the tombs are 
distant, the visit must not be postponed later than during the first 
month. After the ancestral sacrifices, comes the distribution of 
presents, which are enclosed in New Year's boxes. These consist 
of new dresses, shoes, confectionery, jewelry for the boys and girls, 
and various gifts, chiefly cooked delicacies, for neighbors, friends, 
and acquaintances. For five days the festivities are kept up by 
visits, social parties, and entertainments of all sorts. The ordinary 
labors of Hfe are resumed on the sixth day of the new year, but 
with many, fun, rest, and frolic are prolonged during the month. 

The tenth day of the second month is the great house-cleaning 
day of the year, when mats are taken up and shaken, the pots, 
kettles, and jars scoured, and the clothing renovated. 

Tomb-cleaning day occurs in the third month. On this occa- 
sion they make offerings of food to their ancestors, and cleanse 
tombs and tablets. It is a busy time in the graveyards, to which 
women transfer their straw scrubbers, dippers, and buckets, when 
monuments and idols are well soused and scoured. It is more 
like a picnic, with fun and work in equal proportions. 

The third day of the third month comes in spring, and is the 
great May-day and merrymaking. The people go out on the river 
with food and drink, and spend the day in feasting and frolic. 
Others wander in the peach-orchards to view the blossoms. Others 
so inclined, enjoy themselves by composing stanzas of poetry. 

On the eighth day of the fourth month the large cities are 
illuminated with paper lanterns of many colors, and people go out 
on hiUs and rivers to view the gay sights and natural scenery. 



298 COREA. 

The fifth day of the fifth month is a great festival day, on 
which the king presents fans to his courtiers. 

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month occurs the cere- 
mony of distributing seed. The king gives to his officials one 
hundred kinds of seed for the crops of the next year. 

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month sacrifices are offered 
at the graves of ancestors and broken tombs are repaired. 

The chrysanthemum festival is one of much popular interest. 
Among the most brilliant flowers of the peninsula are the chry- 
santhemums, which are cultivated with great pride and care by 
gentlemen and nobles. The flower is brought to unusual perfec- 
tion by allowing but a single flower to grow upon one stem. 
They are often cultivated apart, under oiled paper frames. On 
the ninth day of the ninth month the perfected blossoms are in 
their glory, and the owner of a crop of brilliant chrysanthemums 
invites his friends to his house to feast and enjoy the sight of the 
blooms. The florists exhibit their triumphs, and picnic parties 
enjoy the scenery from the bridges and on the mountains. 

The article chiefly used for pastry among obUque-eyed human- 
ity is what the Japanese call mochi, sl substance made by boiling 
rice and pounding it into a tough mass resembling pie-crust. Like 
oysters, it may be eaten " in every style," raw, warmed, baked, 
toasted, boiled, or fried. It occupies an important place in cere- 
monial offerings to the dead, in the temple, and in household 
festal decoration. It is made in immense quantities, and eaten 
especially at New Year's time, and on the two equinoctial days of 
the year. Another favorite mixed food for festive occasions is 
" red rice " and beans. The Corean housewife takes as much 
pains to color the rice properly as a German lavishes upon his 
meerschaum, and if the color fails, or is poor, it is a sign of bad luck. 

The fourteenth day of the first month a person who is en- 
tering upon a critical year of his life makes an effigy of straw, 
dresses it up with his own clothing at evening, and casts it out on 
the road, and then feasts merrily during the whole night. "What- 
ever happens to the man of straw thus kicked out of the house, is 
supposed to happen to the man's former self, now gone into the 
past ; and Fate is believed to look upon the individual in new 
clothes as another man. 

The fiith, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth of each month are called 
"broken days," on which they avoid beginning anything new. 
These are the "Fridays" of Cho-sen. In the beginning of each 



OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 299 

of the four seasons of the year they post up on the doors of theii 
houses slips of paper, on which are written mottoes, such as " Lon- 
gevity is hke the South Mountain," " Wealth is like the Eastern 
Sea,** etc. Certain years in each person's life are supposed to be 
critical, and special care as to health, food, clothing, new ven- 
tures, etc., must be taken during these years, which are ended 
with a feast, or, what is more economical, a sigh of relief. 

The fifteenth day of the first month is called " Stepping on 
the Bridge." A man and woman go out together over the bridge 
at the rising of the moon and view the moonlit scenery, indulging 
meanwhile in refreshments, both of the solid and liquid sort. It 
is believed that if one crosses over seven bridges on this night, he 
will be free from calamities during the year. 

Not the least interesting of the local or national festivals, are 
those held in memory of the soldiers slain in the service of their 
country on famous battle-fields. Besides holding annual memorial 
celebrations at these places, which fire the patriotism of the people, 
there are temples erected to soothe the spirits of the slain. Espe- 
cially noteworthy are these monumental edifices, on sites made 
painful to the national memory by the great Japanese invasion of 
1592-97, which keep fresh the scars of war. A revival of these 
patriotic festivals has been stimulated by the fanatical haters of 
Japan, since this neighbor country broke away from Asiatic tradi- 
tions. 

Though much has been written concerning the population of 
Corea, we consider all conjectures of persons alike unfamiliar with 
the interior and the true sources of information as worthless. 
These random figures vary from 250,000 (!) to 6,000,000. Dallet 
presumes a population of 10,000,000. A rude enumeration made 
thirty years ago gives the number of houses at 1,700,000, and of 
the people at 7,000,000. Our own opinion, formed after a study 
of the map and official lists of towns and cities, is that there are 
at least 12,000,000 souls in Cho-sen A Japanese correspondent 
of the Tokio Hochi Shimlun, writing from Seoul, states that a cen- 
sus made last year (1881) shows that there are 3,480,911 houses 
and 16,227,885 persons in the kingdom. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY. 

Shamanism is the worship of a large number of primitive North 
Asiatic tribes, having no idols except a few fetishes and some rude 
ancestral images or representations of the spirits of the earth and 
air. It is a gross mixture of sorcery and sacrificial ceremonies 
for the propitiation of evil spirits. These malignant beings are 
supposed to populate the earth, the clouds, and the air, and to be 
the cause of most of the ills suffered by man. They take various 
forms, chiefly those of animals whose structure and anatomy are 
more or less imaginary, each imp or demon being a composite 
creature, compiled from the various powers of locomotion, de- 
struction, and defence possessed by the real creatures that inhabit 
water, earth, and air. Some of them, however, are gentle and of 
lovely form and mien. Their apparition on earth is welcomed 
with delight as the harbinger of good things to come. Confucius, . 
the teacher, hailed by the Chinese as their holiest sage, and to 
whom even divine honors are paid, believed firmly in these por- 
tents and appearances. Chief among these mythic creatures are 
the phoenix, the kirin, the dragon, besides a variety of demons of 
various sizes, colors, habits, and character. Much of the my- 
thology of Cho-sen is that common to Chinese Asia. Instead of 
a gallery of beautiful human, or partially human, presences like 
that of Greece, the mythology of China deals largely with mythic 
animals, though legendary heroes, sages, and supernatural beings in 
human form are not lacking. The four chief ideal creatures are 
the dragon, phoenix, tortoise, and kirin. 

There is another animal which, though a living reality, the 
Coreans have idealized and gifted with powers supernatural and 
supra-animal, almost as many in number as those with which the 
Japanese have endowed the white fox. This is the tiger. They 
not only ascribe to him all the mighty forces and characteristics 
of which he is actually possessed, but popular superstition attrib* 



SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY. 301 

utes to him the powers of flying, of emitting fire and hurHng 
lightning. He is the symbol of strength and ubiquity, the stand- 
ard of comparison with all dangers and dreadful forces, and 
the paragon of human courage. On the war-flags this animal is 
painted or embroidered in every posture, asleep, leaping, erect, 
couchant, winged, and holding red fire in his fore-paw. On works 
of art, cabinets, boxes, and weapons the tiger is most frequently 
portrayed and is even associated as an equal with the four super- 
natural beings. In ancient time he was worshipped. 

The riong, or dragon, whose figure, as depicted in Corean art, 
is perhaps nothing more than a highly idealized form of an ex- 
tinct geological species of saurian, is one of the four supernatural 
or spiritually endowed creatures. He is an embodiment of all 
the forces of motion, change, and power for offence and defence 
in animal life, fin, wing, tusk, horn, claws, with the mysterious 
attributes of the serpent. There are many varieties of the species 
dragon, which is the chief of scaly monsters. It possesses the gift 
of transformation and of rendering itself visible or invisible at 
will. In the spring it ascends to the skies and in the autumn 
buries itself in the watery depths. 

It is this terrific manifestation of movement and power which 
the Corean artist loves to depict — always in connection with 
water, clouds, or the sacred jewel of which it is the guardian, and 
for which it battles, causing commotion in heaven and earth. The 
dragon is synonymous in Chinese philosophy with the third of the 
four creative influences and indicative of the East and Springtime, 
the blue dragon being the guardian of the East. 

Another cycle of popular notions and artistic ideas is sug- 
gested by its change of bulk, for this omnipotent monster "be- 
comes at wiU reduced to the size of a silkworm or swollen till it 
fiUs the space of heaven and earth. It desires to mount, and it 
rises until it a&onts the clouds ; to sink, and it descends until 
hidden below the fountains of the deep." The dragon is the 
embodiment of the watery principle of the atmosphere, and its 
Protean shapes are but the varied ideal expression of the many 
forms and forces of water. Moisture in its fertilizing or destruc- 
tive aspects — from the silent dew to the roaring tempest, from the 
trickling of a rill to the tidal wave that engulphs cities — blessed, 
terrible, gentle, iiresistible, is symbolized by the dragon. The 
functions of the celestial dragon are to guard the mansions of the 
g<2Kds in heaven, so that they do not fall ; of the spiritual, to cause 



302 COREA. 

the wind to blow and produce rain for the benefit of mankind ; of 
the terrestrial, to mark out the courses of rivers and streams, while 
another watches over the hidden treasures concealed from mor- 
tals. This last is the dragon that presides over mines and gems, 
and which mortals must propitiate or overcome in order to gain 
the precious metals and minerals out of the earth. Intense belief 
in the dragon is one of the chief reasons why the mines in Cho- 
sen are so little worked, and the metals disturbed. The dragon 
pursuing the invaders of their sanctuaries or fighting each other 
to gain possession of the jewel balls or sacred crystals is a favorite 
subject in aU art of Chinese parentage. Rarely is the whole figure 
of the writhing creature exposed. Partly hidden in clouds or 
water, he seems ever in motion. There are also four dragon-kings, 
who have their palaces in the world under the sea, one ruling in 
the northern, one in the eastern, one in the southern, and one in 
the western sea. The ministers and messengers of these four 
monarchs are the terrible dragons whose battles in the air and in 
the deep are the causes of the commotion of the elements. There 
is also a dragon vdthout horns, and another that never ascends to 
the skies. The yellow dragon is reckoned the most honorable of 
his tribe. In common belief the dragon carries on his forehead a 
pear-shaped pearl, supposed to possess wondrous virtues of heal- 
ing and power. "Whoever possesses these jewels will be invincible, 
and the power of his descendants endure. 

From its divine origin and character the dragon is symbolical 
of all that pertains to the emperor of Great China. Hence it is 
made use of not only by him, but by his vassal, the king of 
Cho-sen, and by his rival the mikado of Japan. Hence the sig- 
nificance of the trio of these sacred jewels on ornaments and 
instruments belonging to the royal family, whether embroidered 
on the robes of state worn by the king, surmounting the large 
drum of his musicians, or glistening in golden embroidery on the 
banners of his body-guard. The " dragon robe " and " dragon's 
bed," ''dragon standard," refer to the mantle, throne, and flag of 
the king. In the popular speech, whatever is most excellent is 
compared to a dragon. A " dragon-child " is a paragon, a " dragon 
horse" is one of extraordinary speed. When "the fish has 
been metamorphosed into the dragon," some happy change or 
promotion has taken place — the student-competitor has received 
his degree of doctorate, or the office-holder has been told by 
royal appointemnt to " come up higher." 



SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY. 303 

The kirin (kilin or lin) is another of the four supernatural 
creatures of Chinese philosophy and mythology, believed in by 
the Coreans, and depicted in Corean art especially as a sym- 
bol of peace and joy, and on articles used on auspicious and 
happy occasions. This beast, which to the Corean is a "living 
creature," has the body of a deer and the tail of an ox, usually 
highly curled and twisted in a manner to suggest the work of a 
hair-dresser. On its forehead is a single soft horn. It is said 
never to tread on or injure any living being. It is the emblem of 
perfect rectitude, and the incarnate essence of the five primordial 
elements of aU things, viz. : water, fire, wood, metal, earth. It 
is considered the noblest form of the animal creation. Its appear- 
ance on the earth is ever regarded as a happy omen, as the har- 
binger of good government and the birth of good rulers. Hence 
the wealth of association to the Oriental mind in the kirin. The 
male beast is called ki and the female rin or lin. The two words 
combined form the general term kirin. 

The tortoise is the centre of a great circle of pleasing supersti- 
tions, and hence is one of the set of symbols oftenest employed in 
Corean art. The practice of divination is mostly associated with 
tortoise-shell, the figuring of a tortoise's back having a mystic sig- 
nification. In Chinese legend a divine tortoise emerged from the 
Yellow Eiver, on the shell of which a sage discovered the system of 
numerals, and thus obtained the foundation of mathematics and the 
rudiments of philosophy. This tortoise was said to be the embodi- 
ment of the star in Ursa Major, and the progenitor of all the tortoise 
tribe. It can transform itself into other forms of life and lives to the 
age of ten thousand years. Hence it is the symbol of long life. It is 
said to conceive by thought alone. There are said to be ten kinds 
of tortoises, one of them being half dragon, haK tortoise, and with 
a tail like a fringe of silver. This is the attendant of the god of 
waters, and hence is often used as the top of a well. The tortoise 
is also the symbol of immortality and strength, hence is often 
used over walls and places of entrance. Many Corean gateways 
are surmounted with Iiuge tortoises sculptured in stone. The same 
idea is expressed in making the representations of this creature, 
cut from a single rock, the base for monumental tablets set into 
its back. The great seal of state, the regalia of sovereignty in 
Cho-sen, has the form of a tortoise. The phoenix is also repre- 
sented as standing upon a tortoise. Closely connected vdth the 
Hindoo idea of the world resting on an elephant which stands on 



304 COREA. 

a tortoise, is the Chinese idea of " supporting the earth with the 
feet of a tortoise." A common idea in Cho-sen, as in China, is 
the huge tortoise which supports mountains on its back, and 
having a shell which is one thousand leagues in circumference. 

The phoenix (fung-wang or howo), like the kirin, appears on 
the earth at or near the birth of a good ruler, and hence is 
the emblem of peace and good government. The male is called 
fung, or ho, and the female wang, or wo, hence the generic name 
fung-wang or howo. In its marvellous plumage the sheen of the 
five colors may be descried, each of which is typical of the five 
cardinal virtues. In figure it seems to be an ideal combination 
of the peacock and the golden pheasant, but with feathers won- 
drously curled and made into ringlets. It is not only a symbol of 
auspicious government, but of inseparable fellowship, and many 
stanzas of poetry refer to it as typical of courtship and conjugal 
love. In its voice are many intonations, to each of which a name 
is given. For this reason it is a favorite element in the decoration 
of musical instruments. 

Another symbol often used is the Chinese lion, with marvel- 
lously curled hair and mane. Every tuft is a mass of fanciful ring- 
lets, and the beast is so pictured as to make a masterpiece of 
ugliness and terror. The dog of the breed called ngao, so named 
after the earth-supporting tortoise, is also liberally furnished with 
tooth, nail, and hair. It usually cuts the figure of guardian on the 
edge or lid of vessels in which are kept treasures which, because 
they tempt the palate, tempt also the fingers that lift to the 
mouth. The marvellous creature called the Dog of Fo, or Bud- 
dha, usually associated with Chinese-Buddhist art, is believed to 
be of Corean origin. Jacquemart caUs it the " Dog of Corea." 

Other mythical creatures that have their existence in the Co- 
rean imagination are in the form of fishes and serpents. The in-e 
(fish-man or merman) is a sort of siren that is supposed to inhabit 
the Sea of Japan and the Eastern Sea, but whether partly fabulous 
or entirely real, we are unable to say. It is six or seven feet long, 
and in its head and body resembles a human being, as its nose, 
mouth, ears, and arms, or flippers, are covered vrith white skin 
without scales. It has a long and slender tail, like that of a horse. 
It suckles its young, and sheds tears when its offspring are cap- 
tured. It is probable that this creature, though called a fish- 
man by the Coreans, is the animal of which we read, in several 
instances, being presented to the Manchiu emperors in Peking. 



SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY. 



305 



One of them inquired whether such a creature was known in 
Europe, and the Jesuit friar, producing a book, showed an engrav- 
ing of one similar. Perhaps this " fish-man " is the same as a 
reported " dog-fish or shark," living in the seas around Quelpart, 
whose tears produce pearls. 

The i-sium, a colossal marine creature, is purely imaginary, 
like the " earthquake-fish " of the Japanese, which causes the con- 
tiQent to shake. The word is pure Corean, and may answer to our 
symbol of vastness and uncertainty 
— the sea-serpent. Mr. Fergusson 
would doubtless find a new chapter 
for his "Tree and Serpent Worship'* 
in Cho-sen, for, in the peninsula, not 
only are trees reverenced as the abode 
of spirits, but the sa, or snakes, are 
rarely, if ever, harmed. The people 
feed, venerate, and even worship them 
as the guardian genii of their house- 
holds. The epkuron-gi (a pure Cor- 
ean word) is the name by which they 
call the serpent which presides over 
their family Edens. Instead qf being 
looked upon as the embodiment of 
the principle of evil, as in Semitic lore, 
their presence is hailed as an omen 
of blessing. They are treated like 
pets. In their heads they are be- 
lieved to carry a precious jewel after 
they have lived long. A serpent often 
lives to be one thousand years old, 
and then bears in his front a glisten- 
ing gem, called ya-kang-chiu, which 
name the people also apply to any 

glittering stone, especially the diamond. The guardian serpent 
is represented as double-winged, with forked tongue, long and 
darting, flying among the clouds and protecting its worshippers 
by pursuing their enemies. The illustration here given is copied 
from one of the war-flags carried by the Corean mountaineers from 
their homes to the forts on the Han River, in 1871. The staff is 
tipped with pheasant-feathers and horse-hair. 

Their fear of the serpent is the basis of their worship, and the 




Battle-flag Captured by the Americans 
in 1871. 



306 COREA. 

average Corean does not fail to take due precaution to guard 
against its sting. In addition to the ordinary osa or black snake, 
there is the venomous viper, salmo, which "kills its mother at 
birth." Its bite is considered exceedingly dangerous. The tai- 
mang is a great serpent. The flower called kiuk-sa-wa (snake- 
bane), or Eye of India, is believed by Coreans to keep away the 
reptiles, and hence is highly valued. 

Hamel and the French missionaries agree in picturing Corea 
as a land well supplied with reptiles, serpents, and vermin of all 
sorts, and testify to the veneration of them by the people. In 
the folk-lore of the country, the beasts play a conspicuous part. 

Another creature to whom wings rightfully belong is the gin-sai. 
This fabulous bird is capable of diJBfasing so venomous an influ- 
ence that even its shadow poisons food. 

Even the brief Hst of creatures which we have enumerated 
does not exhaust the list of the beings which are real and active 
to the imagination of the people. Science and Christianity are 
the remedies for this delirium tremens of paganism. 

The ancient and still lingering belief in the powers of the air 
and all the creatures therein, visible and invisible, is reflected on 
their triangular and streamer-shaped war-banners. They believe 
that all these creatures and all the forces of nature are under the 
control of the spirits, who wiU give or withhold sunshine or rain, 
send blasting mildew and pestilence, or fertility, plenty and joy, 
according as they are pleased or displeased. 

It will be seen at once what a soil the demagogue has for sow- 
ing dragons' teeth, and what frightful popular commotion may be 
stirred up by playing upon the fears of the populace. The most 
recent illustration of this is seen in the frightful massacre of the 
ministers and the Japanese, in July, 1882. The long drought 
having ruined the rice crop, the leaders of the anti-foreign faction 
persuaded the common people that the spirits were annoyed at the 
introduction of foreigners, and therefore withheld the rain. In this 
belief they were strengthened from the fact that it rained heavily 
for many hours after the Japanese had been driven out of Seoul 



CHAPTEE XXXiy. 

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 

It is not difficult to appreciate or understand the history of 
people whose psychology is our own. We seem to look through 
white Hght in gazing at their past as told in the words of a lan- 
guage that grew in the same mental sunlight with our own. In 
eating fruit that grows on famihar intellectual soil, we may some- 
times recognize a sHghtly strange flavor, but the pulp is good food 
which our mental stomach does not reject, but readily assimilates. 
Truth, like the moon, usually presents one side only, but the mass 
of mankind do not think of this, even if they know it. They go 
on bHssfully imagining they have seen aU sides, even the full orb. 

With the history of the Aryan nations we are familiar, and 
think it is clear to us. We insist that we know we can understand 
what they did and that their thoughts need no translation to us. 

A visitor at the American Centennial, or any exposition of the 
industry of all nations, sees before him for comparative study the 
art, symbols of religion, architecture, implements of domestic life, 
and aU the outward expressions of inward ideas. They are the 
clothed or concrete soul of man under the varied civilizations of 
this planet. Standing before the exhibits of India — the home of 
the Aryan nations — the man of Western Christendom, as his 
mind's eye surveys the vastness of difference between him and the 
Hindoo, is yet able to bridge the gulf. The researches into lan- 
guage, art, myths, folk-lore, show him that the infancy of the two 
races was the same, and that modern differences are impertinent 
accidents. At bottom the Aryan and the Hindoo are brothers. 

No such reconcOiation of ideas is yet demonstrable between 
the MongoUan and the Aryan. Before the art, symbols, ideas, 
literature, language, and physical presence of the man of Cathay, 
no bridging of the gulf seems yet possible. He appears to be a 
man of another planet Language gives as yet h'ttle clue to a 
common origin ; art and symbol seem at the other pole, and in 



308 COREA. 

psychology the difference at present seems total and irrecon- 
cilable. 

Hence, to attempt to write the history of a Turanian people by 
simply narrating bald facts in an occidental language, seems to be 
but putting another white skeleton in the museimi of nations. 
Even the attempt, by a purely destructive method of criticism, to 
manufacture a body, or corpse, rather, of history, by hacking 
away all legend and tradition to get out what the critic is pleased 
to call " history," seems at once imnatural and false. It is like 
attempting to correlate the genius of Shakspeare with ounces of 
beef and cheese, or to measure the market value of poetry by 
avoirdupois. A history of an Asiatic people ought to be as much 
a history of mind, of psychology, as of facts or dynasties. Hence, 
in writing of a new and almost unknown people like the Coreans, 
we think it as important to tell what they believe to have hap- 
pened, as to attempt to state what we think actually did happen. 
To understand a people we must know their thoughts, as well as 
their physical environment. 

According to Corean tradition, the origin of their country and 
people is thus outlined : 

Of old the land had neither prince nor chiefs. A Divine Being 
descended from heaven and took up his abode at the foot of a 
sandal-wood tree on the Ever- White Mountains. The people of 
the land became his subjects, made him their sovereign and called 
him Dan Kun (the Sandal Prince), and his realm Cho-sen (Morn- 
ing Calm). This took place in the time of Tang Ti Yao (2356 
B.C.). His first residence was at Ping-an. Later he transferred it 
to Pe-yo, where his descendants remained till the eighth year of 
the emperor Wu Ting of the Chang dynasty (1317 b.c.), when 
they were established in Mount Asstak. His descendants reigned 
in Cho-sen more than one thousand years, but nothing more is 
known of them after the period covered by their reign. Then fol- 
lowed the occupation of the country by the Chinese noble Ki Tsze. 

The mythical origin and founding of Shinra is thus told in the 
local legends of the place. After the invasion of Cho-sen, by the 
Chinese emperor, many of the original inhabitants fled and scat- 
tered over the east coast. They made settlements on the moun- 
tains, in the valleys, and along the sea-shore, some of which in 
time grew to be cities and large towns. One day the attention of 
the head man of one of the villages was attracted by the neighing 
of horses toward a mountain. He went in the direction of the 



LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 309 

sounds, but instead of a horse he found an egg of extraordinary 
size, shaped like a gourd. Carefully breaking it open, he discov- 
ered a beautiful rosy boy-baby inside. The old man's heart was ' 
touched by the sight, and he took the child to his home and 
adopted it as his own. The boy grew up beloved of all who saw 
or knew him. When but thirteen years old, the elders of the six 
principal towns gathered together and chose him as their lord 
and master. They gave him a name signifying " Coming Out of 
the West," and to the country a name meaning " Born of the 
Gourd-egg." The new king took to wife a fair maiden who was 
reputed to be the offspring of a well-dragon. They reigned for 
sixty years, when their daughter succeeded to the throne. 

In the fifth year of her reign she married a youth who had 
come from afar, whose origin was as wonderful as that of her own 
parents. His mother the queen had been delivered of an egg. 
Her husband, not enjoying such a form of offspring, threw the egg 
away, but the queen recovering it, carefully wrapped it in a silk 
napkin, and with many other treasures put it in a box and set it 
adrift on the sea. After many days the box was washed ashore on 
a distant coast. The fishermen who picked it up in their neta 
thought nothing of it, and threw it into the sea again. It drifted 
into one of the harbors of Shinra. An old woman finding it,, 
opened the lid and found a lovely boy with a smile on his face.. 
Carefully nourishing him, he grew up to be a man of strength,, 
nine feet high. He excelled all other youths in bodily vigor and 
accomplishments. When the old woman fii'st picked up the waif, 
there were a number of crows standing around the shore, and the 
crone gave him a name referring to the presence of these birds—' 
" Opened in Presence of the Crows," Excelling in the knowl- 
edge of geomancy, he found a good place for a residence and 
built on it. Hearing of his renown, the queen of Shinra married^ 
him to her daughter. 

One evening the newly made king heard a cock crow in the^ 
woods toward the west. He sent his servants after it, who found 
a small golden casket suspended from a tree. Under it a white^ 
cock was crowing. The servant reported the matter to his master. 
Another servant was despatched to the place. He returned with 
the box, which, being opened, was found to contain a boy baby, 
who was given the name signifying " The Golden Boy from the 
Grove in which the Cock crowed." The baby boy grew up and 
succeeded his father. In the reign of the twenty-second king of: 



310 CORBA, 

the line, the people of the country, then called Shin-han, changed 
the name of their country to Shinra. 

In the " Grammaire Coreene " there are a number of specie 
mens of folk-lore given in Corean and French, from which we 
extract a few of the most characteristic. The first one is an illus- 
tration of our universal human nature. 

THE THREE WISHES. 

There were once two old married folks who had not a single child, boy or 
girl. Extremely poor, they lived a pitiable life. One evening, when it was 
very cold in winter, after having supped, they gazed into the fire in the bra- 
zier, and sitting in their room face to face they warmed themselves a moment 
in silence, when the good old man thus spoke : 

" For the rich the winter is an excellent season ; their food is prepared in 
advance. Having no toil they have only to take their ease. But for the poor, 
it is a rough time when they have neither food for the mouth nor fuel. If 
they go out over the mountain through the rain or the snow to seek wood, they 
die of cold or frost." 

The good dame replied : " They say that Heaven is just. Why then does 
he permit this ? They say, besides, that when you pray to Heaven, it is easy 
to obtain that which you need. If we ask to become rich — " said she. 

" You are right, do so," replied the husband. 

And both prostrating themselves, prayed fervently to the Deity, when sud- 
denly an angel appeared. 

' ' In spite of your sin of murmuring. Heaven having pitied you, accords 
you three things, after which you can ask no more. Reflect well, choose, and 
ask." Saying this he disappeared. 

The old man made this proposition: "If we ask riches, freedom from 
sickness, or long life — " 

*'No," said the old woman, " we should not enjoy these things properly if 
we do not have a child. What pleasure will it be ? " 

'' Hold ! I have not asked. What shall I do ? If he had only said four 
things at the good moment ! Why did he say only three? Sin^e we wish to 
have a child, must we forego freedom from sickness, must we renounce riches, 
must we give up long life ? It is hard to decide. Think, then, seriously this 
night, and decide to-morrow." 

Breaking off their conversation, both sat plunged in reverie. At the mo- 
ment of lying down to sleep, the old woman, stirring up the fire with the 
tongs, launched out with this reflection, " If we could have three or four feet 
of pudding to set to toast on this brazier, that would be royally excellent." 

She spoke, and there was three feet of food placed by her side. 

The husband, beside himself with rage, screamed out — 

" Oh ! what a woman ! By one stroke you have lost all our benefits. To 
punish you I wish the pudding would hang itself on the point of your nose. " 

Immediately the pudding made a leap and attached itself to the old dame's 



LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 311 

At this the husband cried out, * ' Hello ! Angry as I am, I hare also by 
my fault lost a wish. " Seizing the sausage to detach it, they pulled, first one, 
then the other, almost dislocating the nose, but the sausage held on. 

"Alas! " said the woman in tears, "if this is always to remain hanging 
here, how can I live ? " 

The husband, on the contrary, without being at all disturbed, said, "If 
even yet our wish of fortune is fulfilled, we could make a tube of gold to hide 
this sausage, and then drawing it out at length, it will be only more beautiful 
to see." 

The wife, still more miserable, cried out, * ' Oh, wretched me, only to 
think that fortune should wish to put it there. Well ! whether you be rich 
or live long, as for me, I should like to kill myself." 

Saying this she took a cord and went to strangle herself at the end of a 
beam. The husband, struck with fear, and touched with compassion, hastened 
to set her free. 

"Stop," said he, "there remains one wish to us. Have your own way 
about it." 

"If that is so, I wish that what hangs to my nose comes loose. Quick, 
quick, that it may go swift away. That is my chief wish. " 

She had hardly finished speaking when the sausage fell plump to the 
ground, and out of the midst of the heaven an angry voice was heard : 

"You have obtained the three things which you wished for, and have you 
gained a great advantage ? If you wish to enjoy true blessing in this world 
be content to live with what Heaven gives, and do not form vain desires. " 

The two old folks spitted the pudding, ate it, and from this night they 
abstained from foolish wishes. 

On the morrow, agreeably to their supreme ambition, which was to have a 
baby, they found a little fatherless and motherless orphan. Having adopted 
it as their child, they gave him a good education and lived happily to extreme 
old age. 

The following illustrates official slirewdness and rapacity : 



THE mSTOEY OF A NOSE. 

In the chief city of Chulla, there was a politician who was in debt to the 
government to the amount of ten thousand strings of cash. Unable to pay 
the same, he was condemned to death. Cast into prison, he awaited only 
the orders of the king to carry out the sentence. As he had thought hard with- 
out discovering any means to get out of the affair, he bethought himself of a 
stratagem. So, addressing the jailer, he said : 

" Helloa ! you there, you'll do well to let me go free a little while." 

** Helloa ! " answered the jailer, " what wretched talk ! After I have set free 
a man who ought to be put to death to-morrow or day after to-morrow, what 
shall /do?" 

The prisoner replied, " Are we not friends both of us ? If you do not let 
me go, who can save my life? Think over it a little and see. My wife, my 
children, my house, all I have, all my relations and friends being here, where 



312 COREA. 

shall I fly ? If you set me at liberty for some moments not only will I not ah- 
scond but there will be found means for preserving my life safely. Do so." 

As he thus besought him eagerly, the jailer, struck with compassion, 
could not do otherwise than let him go. 

So at midnight he presented himself before the door of the room where 
the governor slept, and thus addressed him. 

*' Are you asleep ? Is your excellency sleeping ? " 

Hearing the sound and astonished at recognizing the voice of the officer who 
had been cast into prison and was to be executed in a short time, the gov- 
ernor asked. 

"Who are you?" 

"Your servant," answered the officer. 

" A scoundrel who is at the point of being executed, how is it you are here? " 

"If I may be allowed to enter to salute you," said the officer, "I have 
something particular to say to you. " 

"Oh, well, come in and speak." 

The officer entering, approached, sat down, and said : 

"I pray your excellency to reflect and consider my purpose. If you put 
your servant to death this will be simply one man of means less in the world, 
and the money I owe will be lost to the government. What advantage will 
you thus derive? If, on the contrary, you preserve my life there will be one 
man more in the world, and I shall repay the whole of my debt to the govern- 
ment. Let me then live. " 

"If it ought to be so I wish you well in the matter." 

" Your servant will come again, then, to-morrow, during the night, to see 
you." 

"Do as you will." 

The morrow during the night the officer presented himself anew and asked 
to be introduced. Approaching he made the prostrations before the governor, 
drew from his sleeve a packet which he undid and took out a sketch represent- 
ing a human nose. He immediately besought the governor to please put his 
seal upon the sketch. 

Agreeing to the proposal the governor imposed his seal. 

The officer now associated three companions who were in the plot, and they 
all assembled upon the coast of the Eastern Sea, where they found a populous 
village, in the midst of which rose a high and grand mansion. Taking their 
drink of spirits at a hotel in the suburbs of the next village beyond, they pre- 
pared to sup. Addressing their host they put this question : 

"What is the name of the village which is just behind us? Whose is the 
largest house ? " 

The inn-keeper answered, " That is the house of a very rich noble. Last 
year he received the degree of the doctorate and is eligible to fill very soon a 
very high position under the government." 

The officer taking with him one of his comrades repaired to the mansion, 
where, as he noticed, everything showed abundant means, and thus spoke to 
the son, 

"As we have a secret affair to treat of, let us go into another room," said 
the officer. 



LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 313 

They did so. "See here, the king is very sick, and they have called all 
the physicians from all the eight provinces for a consultation. They have de- 
clared that the only means to ohtain healing is to find the nose of a man just 
like this, and to concoct a remedy from it. This is why we have been com- 
manded by the Court, where they have said to us, putting in our hand this 
sketch of the nose. ' Without distinction of place or person if you meet a nose 
similar to this, strike it off and produce it before us in this place.' Obeying 
this severe order we have been out many times without being able to find a 
nose conforming to the sketch, and thus far have made useless journeys, but 
now, without peradventure, your honorable father's nose exactly resembles 
this. We demand to see him, and wherever he may be we shall not depart till 
we have cut it off. " 

The son cried out: " Perhaps they do say such things ! " 

"Who dare oppose the government business? Hurry, hurry, strike it off 
and we'll go." 

The son fell into a study and reflected. 

" It is an affair of state. This is a matter which we cannot prevent. Cut 
it off, they say, but to cut off the nose of my old father, that is altogether im- 
possible. The entire family, men, women, young and old, every one will be 
plunged into woe. You can bear away the half of our fortune at least, if you 
will go away without taking my father's nose. " 

The officer replied, "We had proposed to ourselves to depart only after 
having cut off the nose. However, as this is a matter of a son devoted to his 
father, and that they may not repress filial piety in others, we shall not cut off 
the nose. If you will give us a certain sum we will go elsewhere to procure a 
nose which we shall present to the king." 

He accepted with thanks a sum equal to many times ten thousand strings 
of cash, for which he gave a receipt, told the sender of the money such a day, 
such a place, and on leaving offered this recommendation : 

* ' Upon the whole, say nothing of this affair. If it should leak out, and 
the government comes to know that having found a proper nose we have been 
bribed not to cut it off, we shall be arrested and put to death, they will cer- 
tainly cut off your father's nose and take your money also. Pray then be care- 
ful not to divulge this secret. " Upon this they took their leave. 

Overjoyed at not having his parent's nose amputated, but believing that the 
king on being informed would send again on this business, the son dared let 
no one know until the day of his father's death. Then breaking the silence 
he said, "I have bought my father's nose for thousand strings of cash." 

The story here told explains itself. Cheng-chong was the Har- 
oun al Easchid of Corea. 

AN INSTANCE OP KOYAL SOLICITUDE. 

There was in Cho-sen a king called His Majesty Cheng-chong, who was cel- 
ebrated in all the kingdom for his goodness. One night, disguised as a coun- 
tryman, and accompanied only by a single companion, he started out from the 
midst of the capital to make a circuit in order to inform himself of the temper 
of his subjects, and to become himself acquainted with the details of their life. 



314 CORBA. 

Arrived at a certain point he looked in the window. There was a miser* 
able house, of which the outer dilapidation, extremely pitiable as it was, led 
him to suspect in the interior a state of things difl5.cult to imagine. Eagerly 
wishing to know what it was, he punched a peep-hole in the paper door and 
perceived an old man weeping, a man in mourning singing, and a nun or 
widow dancing. Unable to divine the cause of this spectacle, he ordered his 
companion to call the master of the house. The king's servant doing so, said : 

" Is the proprietor of the house at home ? " 

Hearing this voice the man in mourning made his appearance. His Majesty 
saluting him said : 

" We have never before met." 

" True," said the man in mourning, " but whence are you ? How is it that 
you should come to find me at midnight ? To what family do you belong ? " 

Cheng-chong answered, " I am Mr. Ni, living at Tong-ku-an. As I was 
passing before your house, I was attracted by strange sounds. Then by a hole 
which I made in the door, I saw an old man weeping, a nun who danced, and 
a gentleman in mourning who sang. Why did the old man shed tears, the nun 
dance, and the man in mourning sing ? Unable to fathom the motive I have 
made my friend call the householder with the purpose of informing myself." 

The man in mourning rejoined, " Have you any business to know other 
people's matters ? What is your reason for acting thus when it concerns you 
so little ? The night is well gone. Get back as quickly as possible." 

*'No, not at all. I acknowledge that it is not becoming to pry into the af- 
fairs of others, but this is such an extraordinary case I beg of you give me 
some light on the matter." 

"Alas!" said the man in mourning, "why is the gentleman so eager to 
know other people's matters ? " 

Cheng-chong replied, " It is important that I should be somewhat informed. " 

" Since the gentleman wishes so much to know, I cannot do other than tell. 
This is why. My family has always been poor. In my hut one could never 
find sufficient grain for a meal and one flea would not have enough room upon 
my land to squat upon. I have no victuals for my old father. This is why, 
morning and evening, in default of all other resource, my wife has often cut 
oft a tress of her hair and gone and sold it to buy a cup of bean-soup, which 
she graciously offers to my father. This evening she clipped and sold all of 
her hair that remained, and by this she has become bare-headed like a nun. 
My old father, seeing that for his sake his young daughter-in-law has become 
a nun, broke out into mourning in these terms : 

" * Why have I lived to this day ? Why am I not dead ? Why have I thus 
degraded my daughter-in-law ? ' And in saying this he shed tears. To con- 
sole him, my wife said to him, ' Do not weep,' and she danced. I, also, al- 
though in mourning, joined in with my wife. One danced, the other sang. 
This made my old father smile, and perhaps gave him solace. There ! that is 
why we behaved so. Do not think it strange, and go away." 

Listening to this narrative the king was impressed with such a marked su- 
preme devotion on the part of the son and daughter-in-law, even in the time 
of deepest misfortune, and he said, " This is the most extraordinary thing in 
the world. How will it do to present you at the examination to-morrow ? " 



LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 315 

•• what examination to-morrow ? " asked the man. 

" Wliy, certainly," said Cheng-cliong, "to-morrow there will be an examin* 
ation. By all means don't fail to he there." 

The man responded, "But I have not heard it said that there is to he an 
examination. " 

"Whether you have heard or not," said the king, "prepare to compete, 
and present yourself. As I shall also present myself to-morrow I shall give 
you a stall in the enclosure." 

Having thus spoken he took his leave, returned to the palace and awaited 
the stroke of the great clock-bell. 

No sooner did he hear the vibration of the mighty gong than he immedi- 
ately gave the order to announce promptly the examination in the city, and 
beyond the walls, to the utter astonishment of the literary men, who said, 
" Even until yesterday no one had heard of an examination, and behold it was 
published during the night. What does this mean ? " 

The poor householder on his part made this reflection, "Although I knew 
nothing about it, this man knows perfectly," and he started out. 

On the way he noticed a crowd of candidates. Without hesitation he 
entered the enclosure. The subject of the examination was : " The song of a 
man in mourning, the dance of a nun, the tears of an old man. " 

Of all the students not one could derive the sense of such a subject. 

This man alone knew it perfectly well, because he had had experience of 
those very things in his own house. He treated the theme clearly and sent in 
his copy. The king having examined the essay and found it without a mis- 
take, gave the degree of doctor and sent for him to come to him. 

When they were in each other's presence the king said : 

" Do you know me? It is I who yesterday recommended you to present 
yourself at the examination. Lift up your head and look." 

Fixing his gaze attentively, the man recognized who he was — in effect the 
same person — and manifested his feelings in appropriate actions of gratitude. 

" Go quickly," said the king to him, " go find your old father and wife." 

Forthwith, with high appointment to office joined to magnificent treat- 
ment, the king recompensed the filial piety of the son and daughter-in-law. 

The royal renown has been handed down from generation to generation. 
In truth, beyond the goodness of the king, the reward bestowed upon the filial 
devotion of these two married people is known to every one. 

Evidently the following is a story told by metropolitans to show 
up the bumpkins of the provinces : 

THE PRODIGIOUS EFFECTS OF A LOOKING-GLASS. 

A young noble of Kiung-sang province was going on a journey to Seoul. 
Just as he was about to depart, his wife called him. 

"He! say now, listen to me a little. I have heard the mother of Mr. 
Kim speak of a very lovely thing which looks like glass and pretty metal. 
They say that if you look in it you will see a very curious thing. You must 
bring me one." 



316 CORE A. 

" Is it dear or cheap? " asked the husband. 

" It is not dear," said she. " It will he necessary to spend some money, but 
if you heed the matter at all, it will be easy to pay for it." This is what the 
husband heard as he set out for the capital. 

Having finished his business at Seoul he was on the point of returning, 
having almost lost sight of his wife's order. At last he recalled it, asked the 
name of the object in question, and made the purchase of a mirror through one 
of his friends. In his eagerness to get home he put his wife's commission in 
his wallet without even looking at it. When he arrived home, she hastened 
to take out the mirror. At once she perceived in it a woman. Immediately 
she began to weep and to berate her husband. 

' ' Oh the villain ! not only to play himself the vagabond and debauchee 
but to bring along a concubine ! Is it possible? This woman, what is she? " 

The amazed husband looked in the mirror, and at the side of his wife per- 
ceived a man. Unable to contain his wrath which made his face first dark 
and then blue, he uttered piercing cries. 

*' Is this the conduct for the wife of a noble. You have brought a libertine 
here," cried he. 

He was about to murder his wife, when his old mother hearing the squabble 
came in to know what it was. At sight of the old woman the quarrel ceased 
on either side. Pointing at the mirror, the rivals spoke both at once. The 
weeping daughter-in-law raved about a concubine, the son, even more angry, 
talked of a paramour. As the couple had never quarrelled before, there was 
no way of accounting for the mystery. 

*' Do not be vexed," said she, and looking in the mirror she saw a woman. 
At once she broke out into a laugh. 

"Is it because you see the old woman, your neighbor, that you dispute? 
The widow Pak has come to get some fire," said she, and she went out to 
speak to her, but she was not there. 

Astonished, she called her husband and said to him 

" There is in the children's room a very funny thing. You can see in it 
all kinds of extraordinary things and they are bickering over it. Come and 
see a little." 

The venerable gentleman having entered the room perceived in the mirror 
an aged man. 

*' Hello ! the puppy of the teacher Tsoi has come to collect his fees and I 
have not a penny. That is not very nice." 

The people of the village, one by one, two by two, all without exception 
looked at the mirror, but unable to comprehend anything, they made a tumult. 
Curious to know what should result, they carried it to the magistrate. At sight 
of the instrument, the man of authority more astonished than the others, 
called the policemen and gave them this order : 

"A new officer has arrived, why have I lost my place? Get ready men 
and horses for him. " 

Really believing that he had been cashiered he prepared to leave, when a 
young policeman after a careful examination of the mirror, pointed out the 
manner in which the visage of each individual was reflected. 



CHAPTEE XXXY. 

PROVERBS AND PITHY SAYINGS. 

Shut off, as they are, from the rest of the world, like fish in a 
well, the Coreans nevertheless have coined a fair share of homely 
wisdom, which finds ready circulation lq their daily speech. Their 
proverbs not only bear the mint-mark of their origia, but reflect 
truly the image and superscription of those who send them forth. 
Many, indeed, of their current proverbs and pithy expressions are 
of Japanese or Chinese origin, but those we have selected are 
mainly of peninsular birth, and have the flavor of the soil. 

Do the Coreans place the seat of vdsdom as they do the point 
of vaccination, in the nose ? They ask, " Who has a nose three 
feet long?" which means, " If one is embarrassed, how can he put 
others at ease?" Evidently they have a wholesome regard for 
that member. A *' nose of iron " describes an opinionated man 
and suggests unHmited "cheek." A common expression of the 
Christians, meaning to go to church and pray, is "to see the long 
nose of the father " — that feature of the French priest's face 
being looked upon with awe as the seat of wisdom. 

Between the rivals, Japan and China, Corea probably sees her- 
self in this proverb of the unhappy cur that wanders boneless 
between two kitchens — the cook in each supposing it has been 
fed by the other. " The dog which between two monasteries gets 
nothing." 

Corea' s isolation is "like a fish in a well," or "like a hermit 
in the market-place." They say of a secluded villager, "He 
knows nothing beyond the place which he inhabits." 

" One stick to ten blind men," is something very precious. 

"The cock of the village in a splendid city mansion," is the 
bumpkin in the capital. 

"To have a cake in each hand," is to know not which to eat 
first — to be in a quandary. 

" A volcano under the snow," is a man of amiable manners 
who conceals a violent temper. 



318 COREA. 

" The treasure which always circulates without an obstacle," is 
" cash," or sapeks, 

"An apricot-blossom in the snow," is said when something 
rare and marvellous happens. 

"To blow away the hair to see if there is a scar," is to look for 
a mote in another man's eye, and to hunt for defects. 

" As difficult as the roads of Thibet," is evidently a reminis- 
cence derived from the ancient Buddhist missionaries who came 
from that region. 

"To put on a silk dress to travel at night," is to do a good 
action and not have it known. 

Some pithy sayings show the local gauge of sense. "He 
does not know silver from lead," "He has round eyes," "He 
can't tell cheese from wheat," He is an idiot. "Doesn't know 
lu from yu.'' This last refers to two Corean letters, jot and 
tittle. 

"As opposed as fire and water." 

" A buckskin man," is a man of no will or backbone. 

" To have a big hand," means to be liberal. 

" A great blue sea," refers to something very difficult, with no 
end to it and no way out of it. 

A man who is " not known in all the eight coasts," is an utter 
stranger. 

A very sick person is " a man who holds disease in his arms." 

"A bag of diseases," is a chronic patient. 

" Who can tell in seeing a crow flying whether it be male or 
female?" is a question referring to the impossible. 

The numeral 10,000 (man) plays a great part in proverbial 
sayings as "10,000 times certain." Corea is a "land of 10,000 
peaks." Certain success is "10,000 chances against one." "To 
die 10,000 times and not be regretted," is to be "worthy of 
10,000 deaths." Ten thousand sorrows means great grief. A 
mountain is "10,000 heights of a man high." "Ten thousand 
strings of cash," is a priceless amount. Man-nin are 10,000 peo- 
ple — aU the people in the universe. 

" To lose one's hands," is to make a fiasco. 

A comet is an "arrow star." 

" A hundred battles make a veteran." 

Almost as poetical as the Greek " anarithma gelasma" (unnum- 
bered laughings) is this Corean description of the sea — "Ten 
thousand flashings of blue waves." 



PROVERBS AND PITHY SAYINGS. 319 

" To lose both at a time," is a proverb founded on a native 
love-story. 

"When a raven flies from a pear-tree, a pear falls" — appear- 
ances are deceitful, don't hazard a guess. 

" If one lifts a stone, the face reddens." The Coreans are fond 
of rival feats of lifting. Heavy stones are kept for that purpose. 
"Eesults are proportionate to effort put forth." 

Mosquitoes are lively and jubilantly hungry in Cho-sen, yet it 
does not do to fight them with heavy weapons or " seize a sabre 
to kiU a mosquito." 

A very poor man is thus described : "He eats only nine times 
in a month," or "He eats only three times in ten days." To say 
he is in the depths of poverty is to mention the pathetic fact that 
"he has extinguished his fire ;" for "he looks to the four winds 
and finds no friend." 

"The right and left are different," is said of a hypocrite who 
does not speak as he thinks. 

When a man is not very bright he "has mist before his 
eyes ; " or he " carries his wits under his arms ; " or has " hid- 
den his soul imder his arm-pits," or he "goes to the east and 
goes to the west when he is bothered." 

Like Beaconsfield's dictum — " Critics are men who have failed 
in literature and art," is this Corean echo, " Good critic, bad 
worker." 

"On entering a village to know its usages," is our "When in 
Bome do as the Romans do." 

" To destroy jade and gravel together," refers to indiscrimi- 
nate destruction. 

"Without wind and without cloud," describes a serene life. 

"Go to sea," is a provincial malediction heavier than a tinker's, 
and worse than " Go to grass." 

"I am I, and another is another," is a formula of selfish, and 
Corean for ''ego et non ego,"" "I and not I." 

"A poor horse has always a thick tail " — talent and capacity 
are badly located. 

The large number of morals pointed and tales adorned by the 
tiger are referred to elsewhere. 



CHAPTEE XXXYL 



THE COREAK TIGER. 

The one royal quadruped associated with Corea, as tke white 
elephant is with Siam, the bison with the United States, or the 
dromedary with Egypt, is the tiger. Unlike his relative in India 

that roams in the hot jun- 
gles and along the river 
bottoms, the Corean "king 
of the mountains" is seen 
oftenest in the snow and 
forests of the north, rang- 
ing as far as the fiftieth 
parallel. 

Both actually and ideal- 
ly the tiger is the symbol 
of power and fierceness. 
The flag of the tiger-hunt- 
ers, from the northern 
provinces of Ping-an or 
Ham-kiung, who so bravely 
faced the rifles of the 
United States marines and 
sailors in "our little war 
with the heathen," in 1871, 
was a winged tiger rampant, 
spitting fire, holding the 
lightnings in his lifted fore-claws, and thus embodying the powers 
of earth, air, and heaven. It reminds one of the winged leopard in 
the vision of Daniel, "After this, I beheld, and lo another like a 
leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl." It is 
the tutelary genius of the descendants of the aboriginal worshippers 
of the tiger, who even yet cling to the religion of the soiL* 

^ This flag was presented by its captors to Commodore Homer C. Blake, hy 
whose courtesy the writer had the sketch made for the cut given above. 




Battle-flag Captured in the Han Forts, 



THE COREAN TIGER. 321 

The caps of the body-guard of the sovereign are decorated 
with the cheek and whiskers of the tiger, in order to inspire 
terror among beholders. The Corean beauty carries among the 
jeweky and '* charms" in the reticule at her waist, a claw of the 
dreaded pern or tiger, nor can the hardy mountaineer put in the 
hand of his bride a more eloquent proof of his valor than one of 
these weapons of a man-eater. It means even more than the edel- 
weiss of other mountain lands. On the floors of the better class 
of houses the tiger-skin rug not only adorns the best room, but 
makes the children's play-ground, or the baby's cushion in lieu of 
cradles, which are unknown. The soft hair of these natural rugs is 
often a finger long. Curious toys are made of the fur. 

The most prized articles among the tribute offerings (in these 
days, rather a "bonus" or bribe, than a tax or humiliation) pre- 
sented at the court of Peking, as of old at Kioto or Yedo, are 
these gorgeous pelts. One of them, which the v^iter saw recently, 
the property of a Japanese merchant, measured twelve feet long, 
exclusive of the tail. The symbol of military rank in old Japan, 
as indicative as our shoulder-straps, was a tiger-skin scabbard. 
Especially was it honorable to wear it if captured with one's own 
hands on "frontier service." The hair of these animals seems to 
have more of a woolly quality than those from India, while the 
orange tint is far less predominant, white taking its place. The 
black bars are, however, of equal magnificence with the tropical 
product, and the tail seems to be rather longer. Some idea of the 
great numbers and awful ravages of these hugefelidce in the two 
northern provinces of the Peninsular Kingdom, may be gained 
from the common saying of the Chinese that " the Coreans hunt 
the tiger during one half the year and the tigers hunt the Coreans 
during the other half." The Coreans retort by the proverb bom 
of the desolation that has so often followed the presence of a Chi- 
nese army on their soil, whether as invaders or allies : " After the 
Chinese, the tigers.'" As a single man can create the gigantic 
spectre of the Brocken, so in the national literature this one ani- 
mal seems to have cast a measureless shadow of evil influence 
upon this hermit nation. From the most ancient times it has 
been an object of religious reverence. " They also worshipped the 
tiger, which they looked on as a god," was written of the people 
living on the sea of Japan before the Christian era. " They had 
also the many-spotted leopard." A few of the national proverbs 
will illustrate the amoimt of attention which the subject receives 
21 



322 COREA. 

in daily life, in art, religion, and language, and how often it serves 
to point the morals and adorn the tales told around Corean 
hearths. " A wooden tiger," is the ass in the lion's skin. 

"A broken-backed tiger" describes impotent and raging malice. 

" To give wiQgs to a tiger," is to add shrewdness to force. 

"If you don't enter the tiger's lair, you can't get her cubs," is 
said to spur on the faint heart, "to beard the tiger in his cave." 

"A tiger's repast," describes excess in eating, or the gorgiug 
which follows after fasting. " To nourish a tiger, and have him 
devour you," probably states a common fact of history, as well as 
it depicts ingratitude. " If you tread on the tail of a tiger, you'll 
know it," explains itself. "It is hard to let go the tail of a tiger," 
suggests our "fire" after the "frying-pan," or the "other horn 
of the dilemma ;" while over-cautious people " in avoiding a deer, 
meet a tiger." Men of irascible temper or violent disposition are 
given the pet name of maing-ho, which means an imusuaUy fero- 
cious tiger or " man-eater." 

Corean shrewdness utilizes the phenomena of local experience, 
and equals the craft of the sellers of Joseph. So common is 
the disappearance of a villager through visitations of the tiger, 
that the standard method of escaping creditors or processes of 
law is to leave bits of one's torn clothes in the woods, and then to 
abscond. Obliging friends or relatives quickly report, " Devoured 
by a tiger," and too often it is believed that "Joseph is without 
doubt rent in pieces." This local substitute for our former G. T. 
T., or the usual trip to Europe, is especially fashionable in places 
where "tigers as big as a mountain" are plentiful. To drive 
away the dreaded kal-pem, the people invoke the aid of the tu-e', a 
fabulous monster, which is the enemy of the tiger, and which the 
latter greatly fears. The cry of his name tu-e', tu-e', is believed to 
act as a charm, and is often raised by villagers at night. 

In art, though the native picture-maker may draw a lion in 
such preposterous shape and with such impossible attributes as to 
show at once that no living model was ever before his eyes, yet in 
those pictures of the tiger drawn by Corean artists which we have 
examined, accuracy and vigor of treatment predominate over 
artistic grace. 

The hunters who are familiar with every habit, trait of charac- 
ter, and physical detail of the species, carefully distiuguish his 
parts and varieties. Ho-rang-i is the generic name for the feli\i 
iigris. Kal-pem is a mature fellow in fuU claw, scratchy and 



THE COREAN TIGER. 823 

ferocious. Maing-ho is a large one of unusual size and in the full 
rampancy of his vigor. Mil-pal is an old brute that can no longer 
scratch, and is most probably mangy, and well gouged and scarred 
from numerous household quarrels and frequent tussles with 
rivals. Pi-ho is one agile in turning tail to escape, rather than in 
showing teeth to fight — the term being sometimes appHed to the 
leopard. San-tol is a huge fellow that makes annual visits to one 
place, making his lightning strike more than once in the same 
spot. Siyo-ho is a little, and hal-pem is a female, tiger. A " stone" 
tigress is sterile. Special terms suggestive, and even poetical, for 
the murders, calamities, or ravages of the beast, for traps or 
ditches, for the skin, tail (used for banners and spear-sheaths), 
beard, moustaches, and the noises of purring, growling, nocturnal 
caterwauling, and even for lashing the tail, enrich and vivify the 
Cho-sen vocabulary. 

Tiger-shooting is not a favorite sport among the nobles or 
young bloods. Hunting in general is considered a servile occu- 
pation. Nobles, except those of a few poor families in the north- 
ern provinces, never practise it as sport. Yet it is free to all. 
There are no game laws, no proscription of arms, no game pre- 
sei-ves, no seasons interdicted. 

The only animal which it is forbidden to kill is the falcon, 
whose life is protected by stringent laws. From the most ancient 
times this bird of the golden wing has been held in high honor. 
The hunting-grounds are almost entirely among the mountains, as 
the valleys are too densely occupied with rice and millet fields 
and cultivated soil, to allow game to exist or be hunted. The 
chief weapon used is the flint-lock, imported from Japan. With 
this a single hunter will attack the huge game, although the ani- 
mal, when not immedately killed, leaps right upon his enemy and 
easily makes him his prey. When a tiger has caused great rav- 
ages in a district, the local magistrate calls together all the 
professional hunters and organizes a hunt in the mountains. In 
such cases, the chase is usually, and of intent, without results ; for 
the skin is the property of the government, and the official always 
looks out for himself, coming in first for the spoils. Hence it is 
that a government hunt is usually a farce. Most of the tiger- 
hunters prefer to meet the royal game alone, for then the prized 
skin, which they sell secretly, is theirs. They eat the meat, and the 
bones stripped and boiled make various medicines. 

The number of human lives lost, and the value of property 



324 COREA. 

destroyed by their ravages, is so great as at times to depopulate 
certain districts. A hungry tiger will often penetrate a village in 
which the houses are weU secured, and will prowl around a hovel 
or ill-secured dwelling, during several entire nights. If hunger 
presses he will not raise the siege until he leaps upon the thatched 
roof. Through the hole thus made by tearing through, he bounds 
upon the terrified household. In this case a hand-to-claw fight 
ensues, in which the tiger is kiUed or comes off victorious after 
glutting himself upon one or more human victims. Rarely, how- 
ever, need this king of Corean beasts resort to this expedient, for 
such is the carelessness of the villagers that in spite of the man- 
eater's presence in their neighborhood, they habitually sleep 
during the summer with the doors of their houses wide open, and 
oftentimes even in the sheds in the open fields without dreaming 
of taking the precaution to light a fire. 

This sense of security is especially apt to follow after a grand 
hunt successfully pursued. Then the prey is supposed to have 
been all killed off in the vicinity or driven to the distant moun- 
tains. The Coreans are as careless of tigers as the Japanese are of 
fires. Sometimes the tiger is caught in a snare, without danger 
and by very simple means. A deep pit is covered over with 
branches, leaves, and earth. At the bottom a sharp stake is set 
up. This, however, is only rarely used. During the winter the 
snow is haK frozen over and strong enough to bear the weight of 
a man, but is broken through by the paws of the tiger. The 
beast sinks to the belly, and not being able to move fast, or es- 
cape, is as helpless as a fly in molasses. It is then apparently 
quite easy to approach the creature at bay, though woe be to the 
hunter who is too sure of his prey. To be well-equipped for this 
method of mountain sport, the hunter must have a short sword, 
lance, and snow-shoes. These sel-mai, or racquettes, are of slightly 
curved elastic board, well fitted with loops and thongs. "With 
dogs, trained to the work, the san-chang (lanceman) starts the 
game, and following up the trail usually finishes him with a thrust 
of his spear ; or, in bravado, with a sword-stroke. This method 
of sport was the favorite one pursued by the Japanese invaders. 
Though occasionally a man-at-arms was chewed up, or clawed into 
ribbons, scores of glossy skins were carried back to Nippon as 
trophies by the veterans. Indeed, it may be said, to moat Japa- 
nese children, the nearest country west of them has no other asso- 
ciation in their minds than as a land of tigers. At Gensan, the 



THE COREAN TIGER. 325 

mercliants from Tokio had their dreary homesickness, about the 
time of their first New Year's season in the strange land, rather 
unpleasantly enHvened by the advent of several striped man- 
eaters. These promenaded the settlement at night, and seemed 
highly desirous of tasting a Japanese, after having already feasted 
on several natives. The prospect of playing Little Ked Riding 
Hood to a whiskered man-eater was not a very pleasant expe- 
rience, though a possible one at any time. A tiger ten feet long 
can easily stow away two five-feet Japanese without grievous 
symptoms of indigestion. For an untrained hand, even when 
armed with a Winchester breech-loader, to attempt hunting this 
Corean emblem of power is not attractive sport. The tiger is 
more apt to hunt the man, for elephants are not at hand to fur- 
nish the shelter of their backs. The Japanese do not seem to 
hanker after tiger-claws or skins while in the flesh, but prefer to 
buy for cash over their own counters at Gensan. The " crop " of 
these costly pelts averages five hundred a year at this one port. 

Few experiences tend more to develop all the manly virtues 
than facing a tiger on foot in his native wilds. The Coreans know 
this, and in their lack of drilled troops capable of meeting the 
soldiers of Europe — their " army " consisting almost entirely of 
archers, spearmen, and jingal-firers — they summoned the tiger- 
hunters from Ping-an to fight the Frenchmen of Admiral Roze's 
expedition of 1866. Underrating their enemy, the Frenchmen, in 
attempting to storm a fortified monastery garrisoned by the hunt- 
ers, were completely defeated. When the marines and sailors of 
the American naval expedition of 1871 assaulted "Fort McKee," 
after it had been swept by the shells of the fleet, they were 
amazed at the stern courage of their dark-visaged enemies, who, 
with matchlock, spear, and sword, fought against the shells and; 
breech-loaders to the last. The Americans speak admiringly of 
these brave fellows, so worthy of their lead and steel. 



CHAPTER XXXYII. 

RELIGION. 

A. CAKEFUL study of the common names applied to the moun- 
tarns, rivers, valleys, caves, and other natural features of the soil 
and landscape of any country will lay bare many of the primitive 
or hidden beliefs of a people. No words are more ancient than the 
aboriginal names given to the natural features of a country amid 
which the childhood of a nation has been spent. With changing 
customs, civilization, or reUgion, these names still hold their place, 
reflecting the ancient, and often modified, or even vanished, faith. 

Even a casual examination of the mountain, river, and other 
local names of places in Corea will give one a tolerably clear out- 
line of the beliefs once fully held by the ancient dwellers of this 
peninsula. Against the tenets and influences of Buddhism these 
doctrines have held their sway over the minds of the people and 
are still the most deeply-seated of their beliefs. The statements 
of ancient Chinese, and later of Japanese writers, of foreign cast- 
aways, and of the French missionaries all concur in showing us 
that Shamanism is the basis of the Corean's, and especially the 
northern Corean's, faith. In the first historic accounts of Fuyu, 
Kokorai, and the Sam-han, we find the worship of the spirits of 
heaven and earth, and of the invisible powers of the air, of na- 
ture, the guardian genii of hills and rivers, of the soil and grain, 
of caves, and even of the tiger. They worshipped especially the 
morning-star, and offered sacrifice of oxen to heaven. From such 
scanty notices of early Corea, especially of the northern parts, we 
may form some idea of the cultus of the people before Buddhism 
was introduced. From the reports of recent witnesses, Dutch, 
Japanese, and French, and the evidence of language, we incline to 
the belief that the fibres of Corean superstition and the actual 
religion of the people of to-day have not radically changed during 
twenty centuries, in spite of Buddhism. The worship of the spir- 
its of heaven and earth, of mountains and rivers and caves, of the 



RELIGION. 327 

morning star, is still reflected in the names of these natural ob- 
jects and stiU continues, in due form, as of old, along with the 
sacrifices of sheep and oxen. 

The god of the hills is, perhaps, the most popular deity. The 
people make it a point to go out and worship him at least once a 
year, making their pious trip a picnic, and, as ol old, mixing their 
eating and drinking with their religion. Thus they combine piety 
and pleasure, very much as Americans imite sea-bathing and sanc- 
tification, croquet and camp-meeting holiness, by the ocean or in 
groves. On mountain tops, which pilgrims cHmb to make a visit 
for reUgious merit, may often be seen a pile of stones called siong- 
wang-tang, dedicated to the god of the mountain. The pilgrims 
carry a pebble from the foot of the mountain to the top. These 
pilgrims are among those held in reputation for piety. 

The other popular gods are very numerous. The mok-sin, the 
genii of the trees, the god of rain and of the harvest, are all pro- 
pitiated, but the robust Corean, blessed with a good appetite, 
especially honors Gho-an-nim, the tutelary genius of the kitchen. 
To a Corean, the air is far from being empty. It is thickly 
inhabited with spirits and invisbile creatures. Some of these fig- 
ments of imagination, and the additional powers for good and 
evil, which the Corean attributes to animals of flesh and blood, 
are treated of in a former chapter on Mythical Zoology. Even 
the breezes are the breath of spirits, and " a devil's wind " is a 
tempest raised by a demon intent on mischief. When a person 
falls dead suddenly, heart-disease is not thought of ; he has been 
struck by a devil's arrow. There are not wanting sorcerers who 
seek to obtain supernatural force by magic, which they use 
against their enemies or for hire, direct the spirits to wreak 
mahgnity against the enemy of him who fees them. These 
sorcerers are social outcasts, and reckoned the lowest of humanity. 

The unlucky days are three in each month, the figure of ill- 
omen being five. They are the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth. 
On all extraordinary occasions there are sacrifices, ceremonies, and 
prayers, accompanied with tumultuous celebration by the popu- 
lace. The chief sacrifices are to heaven, earth, and to the King 
or Emperor of Heaven ^ (Shang Ti of the Chinese). 

' This word, pronounced in a slightly different way in Corean, is the term 
which Dr. James Legge, in his " Religions of China," and many missionaries 
of Reformed Christianity, translate God (Jehovah, Theos), hut which the Ro- 
man Catholic missionaries are forbidden to use. Dr. Legge holds that Shang 



328 COREA. 

The various superstitions concerning tlie direction of evil, the 
auspicious or the ill-omened lay of the land, the site for the build- 
ing of a house, or the erection of a tomb, will be well understood 
by those who know the meaning of the Chinese term, Fung Shuy, 
or the Corean Pung-siu. This system of superstition has not only 
its millions of believers, but also its priests or professors, who live 
by their expertness and magnify their calling. The native vocab- 
ulary relating to these pretenders and all their works is very pro- 
fuse. Among the common sights in Corea are little mounds raised 
on ehgible, propitious places, in which a pole is planted, from 
which little bells or cymbals are hung. These jingled by the 
breeze are supposed to propitiate the good spirits and to ward off 
the noxious influences of the demons. The same idea is expressed 
in the festoons of wind-bells strung on their pagodas and temples. 
Pung-siu means literally "wind and water," but in a broad sense is 
a rude cyclopaedia of ideas relating to nature, and bears nearly the 
same relation to natural philosophy as astrology does to astron- 
omy. Its ideas color every-day speech, besides having a rich ter- 
minology for the advanced student of its mysteries. 

Upon this system, and perhaps nearly coeval in origin with it, 
is the cult of ancestral worship which has existed in Chinese Asia 
from unrecorded time. Confucius found it in his day and made 
it the basis of his teachings, as it had already been of the religious 
and ancient documents of which he was the editor. 

The Corean cult of ancestor-worship seems to present no fea- 
tures which are radically distinct from the Chinese. Public cele- 
brations are offered at stated times to ancestors, and in every well- 
to-do house will be found the gilt and black tablets inscribed with 
the names of the departed. Before these tablets the smoke of 
incense and sacrifice arises daily. In the temple also are rooms 
for the preservation of duplicates of the tablets in the private 
houses for greater safety. Like the iron atoms in his blood, the 
belief in ancestral piety and worship is wrought into the Corean' s 
soul. The Christian missionaries meet with no greater obstacle 
to their tenets and progTess than this practice. It is the source, 
even among their most genuine converts, of more scandals, lapses, 
and renunciations, than are brought about by all other causes. 

Confucianism, or the Chinese system of ethics, is, briefly stated, 

Ti is the most ancient title of Deity in the language of the Chinese, and was 
used by their ancestors when they held to primitive monotheism. "In the 
ceremonies at the altars of heaven and earth, they served God " (Confucius). 



RELIGION. 829 

an expansion of the root idea of filial piety. It is duty based on 
relation. Given the five great relations, all the manifold duties of 
life folio VST. The five relations are that of king and subject (prince 
and minister), of parent and child, of husband and vrife, of the 
elder brother and the younger brother, and between friends. 
The cardinal virtues inculcated, or " The Five Constituents of 
Worth," or constant virtues displayed, according to the teachings 
of Confucius, by the perfect man are : 1, Benevolence ; 2, Upright- 
ness of Mind ; 3, Propriety of Demeanor ; 4, Knov^ledge or En- 
lightenment ; 5, Good Faith ; or, Ajffection, Justice, Deference, 
Wisdom, Confidence. 

With the ethics of the Chinese came their philosophy, which is 
based on the dual system of the universe, and of which in Corean, 
yum-yang (positive and negative, active and passive, or male and 
female) is the expression. All things in heaven, earth, and man 
are the result of the interaction of the yum (male or active prin- 
ciple) and the yang (female or passive principle). Even the 
metals and minerals in the earth are believed to be produced 
through the yum-yang, and to grow like plants or animals. 

The Confucian ethics, suiting well a state of feudalism, and 
being ever acceptable to the possessors of authority, found con- 
genial soil in the peninsla, as they had already taken root in 
Kokorai. They nourished the spirit of filial piety and personal 
loyalty, of feud and of blood-revenge, by forbidding a man to 
live imder the same heaven with the murderer of his father or 
master. Notwithstanding the doctrines and loftier morals of 
Buddha, the Chinese ethics and ancestor-worship, especially in 
the northern part of the peninsula, tmderlaid the outward ad- 
herence of the people to the religion of the Enlightened One. 
As the average Christian, in spite of the spirit of Jesus and the 
Sermon on the Mount, is very apt to base his behavior and legal 
procedure on the code of Justinian, so the Corean, though he 
may believe in Fo (Buddha), practises after the rules of Kong-ja 
(Confucius). 

Official sacrifices are regTdated by the government and are 
offered up publicly at the national festivals. Something of the 
regulated subordination in vogue among the Chinese prevails in 
Cho-sen when ancestors are honored. High officials may sacrifice 
to three ancestors, the gentry only to father and grandfather, and 
the common people to father only. In every province, capital, and 
city ranked as Tai-mu-kan, there are buildings containing statues 



330 COREA. 

of Confucius and his thirty-two disciples, wMch are maintained 
at the public expense. 

Confucianism overspreads the whole peninsula, but during the 
prevalence of Buddhism, from the fourth to the fourteenth cen- 
tury, was probably fully studied and practised only by the learned 
classes. Under the present dynasty, or from the fifteenth century, 
the religion of China has been both the official and popular cult 
of Cho-sen, long ago reaching the point of bigotry, intolerance, 
and persecution. Taoism seems to be little studied. 

In Corean mouths Buddha becomes Pul, and his " way " or 
doctrine Pul-to or Ful-chie. Introduced into Hiaksai in the fourth, 
and into Shinra in the sixth century, the new faith from India 
made thorough conquest of the southern haK of the peninsula, but 
has only partially leavened the northern portion, where the grosser 
heathenism prevails. The palmy days of Corean Buddhism were 
during the era of Korai (from 905-1392, a.d.). The missionary 
work had been accomplished, the reigning dynasty were pro- 
fessors and defenders of the faith, and for these four centuries it 
was the religion of the state. The few surviving monuments of 
this era of splendor are the grand pagodas, monasteries, and tem- 
ples that are found, especially in the southern provinces. The 
profusion of legal and ecclesiastical terms in the language which 
relate to lands set apart to provide revenues for the temples, and 
to their boundaries and rents, and the privileges of monks and 
priests, are more probably the relics of a past time, being only 
verbal shells and husks of what were once fruit and kernel. 

Until the fifteenth or sixteenth century the Japanese Buddhists 
looked to the "Treasure-land of the West," as they termed Cho- 
sen, for spiritual and even pecuniary aid in their ecclesiastical 
enterprises. The special features of many renowned Japanese tem- 
ples, libraries, collections of books, images, altar furniture, etc., 
are of Corean origin. This is especially noticeable in the old seats 
of the faith in Kioto. Images in gold, gilt wood, bronze, and 
some fire-resisting material — perhaps platinum — are known and 
duly certified by genuine documents in temples in other citiesL 
In a building at Kamakura is a copy of the Buddhist canon in a 
revolving library, said to have been obtained by San6tomo frons 
Corea in the thirteenth century. Among the amusing passages iii 
the letters from Ashikaga in Kamakura, two hundred years later, 
is the hint given to the king of Corea that a contribution in aid 
of the repair of certain Japanese temples would be acceptable. 



RELIGION. 331 

The site and general surroundings of Corean Buddhist temples 
and monasteries greatly resemble those of China and Japan. They 
are often situated on hiUs, rising ground, and even high moun- 
tains, and walled round by lofty and venerable trees which seem 
to inspire awe and veneration in the worshipper, besides acting as 
extinguishers to sparks drifted from neighboring fires. An impos- 
ing gateway is usually built at some distance before the temple, 
with massive curved roof of tiles, and flanked by a wall of ma- 
sonry which, in its upper part, consists of plaster tiled at the top. 
On the frieze of the portal, the name of the temple is inscribed in 
large Chinese characters. Sanskrit letters or monograms are occa- 
sionally seen. Under a roofed shed in front hangs the drum on 
which the bonze beats the hours for prayer, or of the clock. On 
the other side stands the coffer for the cash of the faithful, or a 
well for the manual ablutions of pious worshippers. Boards, on 
which are written the names of those who have contributed money 
to the temple, are suspended near by, and the thatched houses of 
the neophytes and bonzes are close at hand. 

The idols seen in a Corean temple are the same as those found 
throughout Buddhist Asia. The chief is that of Shaka Muni, or 
Buddha, the founder of the religion. In their sculpture and artis- 
tic treatment of this, the central figure of their pantheon, the 
image-carvers of the different countries do not greatly vary, ad- 
hering strictly to their traditions. The sage in Nirvana sits on his 
knees with the soles of his feet turned upward to the face. His 
hands touch, thumb to thumb, and finger to finger. The folds of 
the robes, the round bead-like caste mark of his forehead, the 
snails on his crown — which tradition says came out to shelter his 
head from the rays of the sun — and the lop or pierced ears, are 
substantially the same as those seen on idols from India, Siam, and 
Thibet. The eye is only slightly oblique, and the ear-lobes are 
made but slightly bulbous, to satisfy the tastes of worshippers in 
Chinese Asia. The throne, consisting of the fully opened calyx of 
a lotus flower — the symbol of eternity — with the petals around the 
base and seed-holes open, is the same. 

In the representation of local deities the artist asserts his 
patriotism and displays his own taste. In the various countries 
overrun by Buddhism, the indigenous heroes, sages, and gods 
have been renamed and accepted by the Buddhists as avatars or 
incarnations of Buddha to these countries before the advent of 
the teachers of " the true religion." There are also saiats and 



B32 COREA. 

subordinate magnates in tlie Buddhist gallery of worshipped 
worthies, with whose effigies the artist does not scruple to take 
certain Hberties. One can easily recognize an idol of Chinese, 
Corean, Siamese, or Japanese manufacture, though all bear the 
same name. The god of war in Cho-sen holds the double-bladed 
sword, with its tasselled cord, and wears the Chino-Corean armor 
and helmet. In the aureole round the head are three fiery revolv- 
ing thunder-clouds. On the battle-flags captured by the Amer- 
ican forces in 1871 were painted or embroidered the protecting 
deities of those who fought under them. One of these, whether 
representing a Buddha, as seems most probable, or, as is possible, 
some local hero — perhaps Dan Kun or Ki Tsze — deified, rides on 
one of the curious little ponies, stunted and piebald, of Ham- 
kiung, with which, even in ancient times, one could ride under a 
fruit tree. Evidently it would have been safer for Absalom in 
Corea than in woody Palestine. 

The tutelary god on the stunted piebald horse is dressed in 
the peculiar v^inged head-dress and friUed collar which travellers 
on Ham-kiung soil noticed fifteen centuries ago. His armor is in 
scales, or wrought in the " wave-pattern " characteristic of Corean 
art. His shoes and saddle are of the Chinese type. He rides 
among the conventional clouds, which in the native technique, are 
different from those of either China or Japan. Evidently the Budd- 
ha and saints of Shaka Muni are portrayed by the native artist 
according to the strict canons of orthodoxy, while in dealing with 
indigenous deities, artistic licence and local color have free play. 
Most of the artists and sculptors of temple work are priests 
or monks. The principal idols are of brass, bronze, or gilded 
wood, the inferior sorts are of stone. The priests dress just 
like the Japanese bonzes. They attend the sick or dying, but 
have Httle to do with the burial of the dead, owing to the prev- 
alence of the Pung-sui superstition, to which a Corean in life and 
in death is a bond-slave. This aU-powerful disease of the intellect 
is the great corrupter of Corean Buddhism, many of its grossest 
ideas being grafted into, or flourishing as parasites on a once 
pure faith. 

In its development Corean Buddhism has frequently been a 
potent influence in national affairs, and the power of the bonzes 
has at times been so great as to practically control the court and 
nullify decrees of the king. With the Fuya race — that is in Cho- 
sen and Nihon — the history of Buddhism has a decidedly mili- 



RELIGION. . 833 

tary cast. During the first centuries of its sway in the peninsula 
the ablest intellects were fed and the ablest men were developed 
by it, so that it was the most potent factor in Corea's civiHzation. 
Over and over again have the politcial and social revolutions been 
led by Buddhist priests, who have proved agitators and warriors 
as well as recluses and students. Possessing themselves of learn- 
ing, they have made their presence at court a necessity. Here 
they have acted as scribes, law-givers, counsellors, and secretaries. 
Often they have been the conservers of patriotism. The shaven- 
pated priest has ever been a standard character in the glimpses 
of Corean history which we are allowed to catch. 

Not always has this influence been exerted for good, for once 
possessed of influence at court, they have not scrupled to use it for 
the purpose of aggrandizing their sects. Tradition tells of high 
nobles won from the pleasures of the palace to the seclusion of 
the cloisters, and even of Corean queens renouncing the bed of 
their royal spouses to accept the vows of the nuns. As in Japan, 
the frequent wars have developed the formation of a clerical 
militia, not only able to garrison and defend their fortified monas- 
teries but even to change the fortune of war by the valor of their 
exploits and the power of their commisariat. There seems to be 
three distinct classes or grades of bonzes. The student monks 
devote themselves to learning, to study, and to the composition of 
books and the Buddhist ritual, the tai-sa being the abbot. The 
jung are mendicant and travelling bonzes, who solicit alms and 
contributions for the erection and maintenance of the temples and 
monastic establishments. The military bonzes (siung kun) act as 
garrisons, and make, keep in order, and are trained to use, weapons. 
Many of their monasteries are built on the summit or slopes of 
high mountains, to which access is to be gained only with the 
greatest difficulty up the most rocky and narrow passages. Into 
these fastnesses royal and noble professors of the faith have fled 
in time of persecution, or pious kings have retired after abdica- 
tion. In time of war they serve to shelter refugees. It was 
in attacking one of these strongholds, on Kang-wa Island, in 
1866, that the French marines were repulsed with such fearful 
loss. 

Many temples throughout the country have been erected by 
the old kings of Korai or by noblemen as memorials of events, 
or as proofs of their devotion. The building of one of these at 
great expense and the endowment of others from government 



334 COREA. 

fiinds, sometimes happens, even during the present dynasty, as was 
the case in 1865, when the regent was influenced by the bonzes. 
He rebuilt the temple in an unparalleled style of magnificence, 
and made immense presents to other temples out of the public 
treasury. It has been by means of these royal bounties, and the 
unremitting collection of small sums from the people, that the 
bonzes have amassed the vast property now held by them in eccle- 
siastical edifices, lands, and revenues. Some of these mountain 
monasteries are large and stately, with a wealth of old books, 
manuscripts, liturgical furniture, and perhaps even yet of money 
and land. The great monastery of Tong-to-sa, between Kiung- 
sang and Chulla, is noted for its library, in which will be found 
the entire sacred canon. The probabilities of American or Eu- 
ropean scholars finding rare treasures in the form of Sanskrit 
MSS. in this unsearched field are good, since the country is now 
opened to men of learning from Christendom. As a rule, the com- 
pany of monks does not number over ten, twenty, or thirty, re- 
spectively, in the three grades of temples. Hamel teUs us that 
they live weU and are jolly fellows, though his opinion was some- 
what biased, since he remarks that "as for reHgion, the Coreans 
have scarcely any. . . . They know nothing of preaching 
or mysteries, and, therefore, have no disputes about religion." 
There were swarms of monastics who were not held in much 
respect. He describes the festivals as noisy, and the people's 
behavior at them as boisterous. Incense sticks, or "joss" per- 
fumery, seemed very much in vogue. He bears witness to their 
enjoyment in natural scenery, and the delightful situation of the 
famous temples. 

Even at the present day, Buddhist priests are made high 
officers of the government, governors of provinces, and military 
advisers. Like as in Japan, Buddhism inculcates great kindness 
to animals — the logical result of the doctrine of the transmigration 
of souls, and aU who kill are under its ban. Though beef, pork, 
and mutton are greedily eaten by the people, the trade of the 
butcher is considered the most degraded of all occupations, and 
the butchers and leather dressers form a caste below the level of 
humanity, like the Etas in Japan. They are beneath the slaves. 
They must Hve in villages apart from the rest of the people, and 
are debarred from receiving water, food, fire, or shelter at the 
hands of the people. The creation of this class of Corean pariahs 
and the exclusion of these people from the pale of recognized so^ 



RELIGION. 335 

ciety is the direct result of the teachings of the bonzes. Like the 
Chinese, and unlike the Japanese bonze, the devotees will often 
mutilate themselves in the frenzy of their orgies, in order to gain 
a character for holiness or in fulfilment of a vow. One of these 
bonzes, appointed by the magistrate to dispute publicly with a 
Christian, had lost four fingers for the sake of manufacturing a 
reputation. The ceremony of pul-tatta, or "receiving the fire," is 
undergone upon taking the vows of the priesthood. A moxa or 
cone of burning tinder is laid upon the man's arm, after the hair 
has been shaved off. The tiny mass is then lighted, and slowly 
bums into the flesh, leaving a painful sore, the scar of which 
remains as a mark of holiness. This serves as initiation, but if 
vows are broken, the torture is repeated on each occasion. In this 
manner, ecclesiastical discipline is maintained. 

In the nunneries are two kinds of female devotees, those who 
shave the head and those who keep their locks. The po-sal does not 
part with her hair, and her vows are less rigid. Hamel mentions 
two convents in Seoul, one of which was for maidens of gentle 
birth, and the other for women of a lower social grade. 

Excepting in its military phases, the type of Corean Buddhism 
approaches that of China rather than of Japan. In both these 
countries its history is that of decay, rather than of improvement, 
and it would be difficult indeed for Shaka Muni to recognize the 
faith which he founded, in the forms which it has assumed in 
Cho-sen and Nippon; nor did it ever succeed in making the 
thorough missionary conquest of the former, which it secured in 
the latter, country. The priority of the Confucian teachings and 
the thorough indoctrination of the people in them, the nearness 
of China, the close copying of Chinese manners, customs, and ma- 
teriaUstic spirit, the frequency of Chinese conquests, and perhaps 
the presence of an indigenous religion even more strongly marked 
than that of Shinto in Japan, were probably the potent reasons 
why Buddhism never secured so strong a hold on the Corean in- 
tellect or affections as upon the Japanese. Nevertheless, since 
Buddhism has always been largely professed, and especially if 
Confucianism be considered simply an ethical system and not a 
rehgion proper, Corea may be classed among Buddhist coimtries. 
Among the surprises of history is the fact that, in 1876, the Shin, 
or Reformed sect of Japanese Buddhists, sent their missionaries 
to Corea to preach and convert. Among their conquests was a 
young native of ability, who came to Kioto, in 1878, to study the 



336 COREA. 

reformed Buddhism, and who later returned to preach among his 
own people. In 1880 five more young Coreans entered the Shin 
theological school in Kioto, and a new and splendid Shin temple, 
dedicated to Amida Buddha, has been built at Gensan. Evidently 
this vigorous sect is resolutely endeavoring, not only to recoup 
the losses which Christianity has made in its ranks in Japan, but 
is determined to forestall the exertions of Christian missionaries 
in the peninsula. 

So thoroughlj saturated is the Corean mind with Chinese philosophy 
(p. 329) that when of necessity a national emblem or flag must he made, the 
symbol expressive of the male and female, or active and passive principles 
dominating the universe, was selected. Though Corea excels in the variety 
of her bunting and the wealth of symbolism upon her flags and streamers, ye^ 
the national flag, as now floated from her ships, custom-houses, and Legations 
in the United States and Europe, has an oblong field, in the centre of which 
are the two comma-shaped symbols, red and black, of the two universal 
principles. In each of the four corners of the flag is one of the Pak-wa or 
eight diagrams, consisting of straight and broken lines, which Fu-hi, the re- 
puted founder of Chinese civilization, read upon the scroll on the back of the 
dragon-horse which rose out of the Yellow River, and on the basis of which 
he invented the Chinese system of writing. In these diagrams the learned 
men in Chinese Asia behold the elements of all metaphysical knowledge, and 
the clue to all the secrets of nature, and upon them a voluminous literature, 
containing divers systems of divination and metaphysical exegesis, has been 
written. The eight diagrams may be expanded to sixty-four combinations j 
or, are reducible to four, and these again to their two primaries. The con- 
tinuous straight line, symbol of the yum principle, corresponds to light, 
heaven, masculinity, etc. The broken line symbolizes the yang principle, 
corresponding to darkness, earth, femininity, etc. These two lines signify 
the dual principle at rest, but when curved or comma-shaped, betoken the 
ceaseless process of revolution in which the various elements or properties 
of nature indicated by the diagrams mutually extinguish or give birth to one 
another, thus producing the phenomena of existence. 

Professor Terrien de Lacouperie sees in the Pak-wa a link between Baby- 
lonia and China, a very ancient system of phonetics or syllabary explaining 
the pronunciation of the old Babylonian characters and their Chinese deriva- 
tives. It is not likely that Morse derived the idea of his magneto-electric 
telegraphic alphabet from the Chinese diagrams. Possibly the Corean literati 
who suggested the design for a national flag intended to show, in the brightly 
colored and actively revolving germs of life set prominently in the centre, and 
contrasted with the inert and immovable straight lines in the background of the 
corners, the progressive Corea of the present and future as contrasted with 
Corea of the past and her hermit-like existence. Significantly, and with un- 
conscious irony of the Virginia advertisers, the new Corean flag was first pub- 
lished to the Western world at large on the covers of cigarette packages. For 
centuries the energies of Coreans have been wasted in tobacco smoke, and th« 
era of national decay is almost synchronous with the introduction of tobacco. 



CHAPTEK XXXYIII. 

EDUCATION AND CULTURE. 

CoREA received her culture from China, and gave it freely to 
Japan. If we may believe the doubtful story of Ki Tsze, then the 
Coreans have possessed letters and writing, or, what is the equiva- 
lent thereto, they have had "civilization," diu'ing three thousand 
years. It is certain that since about the opening of the Christian 
era, the light of China's philosophy has shone steadily among 
Corean scholars. Japanese early tradition — unworthy of credence 
in the matter of chronology — claims that literature was brought 
to Nippon as early as the period 157-30 b.c. The legend of Jingu 
bringing back books and manuscrpts from Shinra is more prob- 
able ; while the coming of Wani from Hiaksai, to teach the Chi- 
nese characters and expound the classics, is a historic fact, though 
the real date may be uncertain, or later than the accepted one, 
which is 285 a.d. While the Kokorai people may have brought 
letters with them, as they migrated southward, in Hiaksai the 
Confucian analects were not studied until the fourth century, 
when official recognition of education was made by the appoint- 
ment of Hanken as master of Chinese Hterature. This is said to 
have been the first importation of learning into the peninsula. It 
was so in the sense of being formally introduced from China into 
the country south of the Ta-tong Eiver. 

As in most of the Asiatic countries, into which Chinese culture 
penetrated, popular education was for centuries a thing unthought 
of. Learning was the privilege of a few courtiers, who jealously 
guarded it from the vulgar, as an accomplishment for those about 
the royal person, or in the noble families. The classics and eth- 
ical doctrines seem in every case to have penetrated the nations 
surrounding the Middle Kingdom, and formed the basis of courtly 
and aristocratic education. 

Buddhism furnished the popular or democratic element, which 
brought learning to the lower strata of society. Neophytes were 
22 



338 COREA. 

usually taken from the humbler classes, and thus culture was 
diffused. Even the idols, pictures, and scrolls, with the explana- 
tions and preaching in the vernacular, served to instruct the peo- 
ple and lift their thoughts out of the rut of every-day life — a 
result which is in itself true education. Wherever Buddhism 
penetrated, there was more or less literature published in the 
speech of the unlearned, and often the first books for the people 
were works on religion. China gave her language and ideographs ; 
India sent Sanskrit and phonetic letters, from which syllabaries 
or alphabets were constructed, not only for vernacular writing and 
printing, but as aids to the easier apprehension and more popular 
understanding of the tenets of Confucius. 

The Corean syllabary seems to have been first invented by 
Chul-chong, one of the ministers at the court of the king of Shinra, 
in the seventh century. This was the Nido ; like the kana of the 
Japanese, purely a collection of syllables and not a true alphabet. 
The Nido was made by giving to some of the commoner Chinese 
characters a phonetic value, though the idea of having a vernacular 
system of writing was most probably suggested by the Sanskrit 
letters,^ some of which accurately represented Corean sounds. The 
true alphabet of the Coreans, called Unmun (common language), 
was invented by a Buddhist priest named Syel-chong, or Sye'- 
chong, who is regarded as one of the ablest scholars in the literary 
annals of Corea. The "Grammaire Coreene" states that this took 
place under the dynasty of Wang, at Sunto, "toward the end of the 
eighth or ninth century of the Christian era." This is a palpable 
mistake, as the dynasty of Wang was not established at Sunto until 
the tenth century. Mr. Aston, whose researches are based on the 
statements of Corean and Japanese writers, believes that the Un- 
mun, or true Corean alphabet, " was invented not earlier than the 
first half of the fifteenth century." Yet, in spite of their national 
system of writing, the influence of the finished philosophy and cul- 
ture of China, both in form and spirit, has been so great that the 
hopelessness of producing a copy equal to the original became at 
once apparent to the Corean mind. Stimulating to the receptive 

^ Dr. D. Bethune McCartee, a well-known American scholar, writing on 
Riu Kin, says : " The art of spelling was invented neither by the Chinese nor 
by the Japanese. Its introduction into both these countries (and, as we are 
convinced, into Corea as well) was the result of the labors of . . . the 
early Buddhist missionaries. In all the three countries . . . the system 
of spelling is most undoubtedly of Sanskrit origin." 



EDUCATION AND CULTURE. 339 

intellect, it has been paralyzing to all originality. The culture of 
their native tongue has been neglected by Corean scholars. The 
consequence is, that after so many centuries of national life, Cho- 
sen possesses no literature worthy of the name. Only in rare cases 
are native books translated into either Chinese or Japanese. 

At present, Corean literary men possess a highly critical 
knowledge of Chinese. Most intelligent scholars read the classics 
with ease and fluency. Penmanship is an art as much prized and 
as widely practised as in Japan, and reading and writing con- 
stitute education. From the fifth to the seventeenth century the 
Corean youth of gentle blood went to Nanking to receive or com- 
plete their education. Since Peking has been the Chinese capital 
(imder the Mongols from 1279, and under the Ming emperors 
from 1410) few young men have gone abroad to study until within 
the last year, when numbers of Corean lads have entered the 
naval, military, and literary schools of the imperial government. 

The practical democratic element pervading China was long 
absent from the nations which were her pupils and vassals. Of 
aU these borrowers, Corea has most closely imitated her teacher. 
She fosters education by making scholastic ability, as tested in 
the literary examination, the basis of appointment to office. This. 
"Civil Service Eeform" was established in Cho-sen by the now 
ruling dynasty early in the fifteenth century. Education in Corea, 
is public, and encouraged by the government only in this sense^ 
that it is made the road to government employ and official proi-- 
motion. By instituting literary examinations for the civil andi 
military service, and nominally opening them to all competitorsj 
and filling all vacancies with the successful candidates, there is; 
created and maintained a constant stimulus to culture. 

Corean culture resembles that in mediaeval Europe. It i& 
extra-vernacular. It is in Latin — the Latin of Eastern Asia— the 
classic tongue of the oldest of living empires. This literary instru*- 
ment of the learned is not the speech of the modem Chinamen, but 
the condensed, vivid, artificial diction of the books, which the Chi^ 
nese cannot and never did speak, and which to be fully understood^ 
must be read by the eye of the mind. The accomplished scholar 
of Seoul who writes a polished essay in classic style packs: his sen- 
tences with quotable felicities, choice phrases, references to; his^- 
tory, literary prismatics, and kaleidoscopic patches picked out 
here and there from the whole range of ancient Chinese literaturej 
and imbeds them into a mosaic — smooth, brilliant,, chas^fcey and a 



340 COREA. 

perfect unity. This is the acme of style. So in the Corean mind, 
the wise saws and ancient instances, the gnomic wisdom, quota^ 
tions and proverbs, political principles, precedents, historical 
examples, and dynasties, are all Chinese, and ancient Chinese. 
His heaven, his nature, his history, his philosophy, are those of 
Confucius, and like the Chinaman, he looks down with infinite 
contempt upon the barbarians of Christendom and their heterodox 
conceptions of the universe. Meanwhile his own language, litera- 
ture, and history are neglected. The Corean child begins his 
education by learning by voice, eye, and pen, the simple and beau- 
tiful native alphabet of twenty-five letters, and the syllabary of 
one hundred and ninety or more combinations of letters. He 
learns to read, and practises writing in both the book or square 
style and the script form or running hand. The syllabary is not 
analyzed, but committed to memory from sight and sound. Spell- 
ing is nearly an unknown art, as the vowel changes and require- 
ments of euphony — so numerous as to terrify the foreign student 
of Corean — are quickly acquired by ear and example in childhood. 
With this equipment in the rudiments, which is all that nearly all 
the girls, and most of the boys learn, the young reader can master 
the story-books, novels, primers of history, epistles, and the ordi- 
nary communications of business and friendship. If the lad is to 
follow agriculture, cattle-raising, trade, mining, or hunting, he 
usually learns no more, except the most familiar Chinese char- 
acters for numbers, points of the compass, figures on the clock- 
dial, weights, measures, coins, and the special technical terms 
necessary in his own business. Thus it often happens that a 
Corean workman, like a Chinese washerman, may be perfectly 
famiHar with the characters even to the number of hundreds re- 
lating to his trade or occupation, and yet be utterly unable to 
read the simplest book, or construct one Chinese sentence. With 
the Chinese characters, one can v^ite English as well as Corean 
or Japanese, but a thorough knowledge of the terms necessary to 
a sailor, a jeweller, a farmer, or a lumber merchant would not 
enable one to read Ivanhoe or Wordsworth. 

If the Corean lad aspires to government service, he begins early 
the study of the "true letters" or "great writing." The first 
book put into his hands is, " The Thousand Character Classic." 
This work is said to have been composed by a sage in one night — 
a labor which turned the hair and beard of the composer to 
whiteness. In it no character is repeated, and all the phrases are 



EDUCATION AND CULTURE. 341 

in two couplets, making four to a clause. The copies for children 
are printed from wooden blocks in very large type. At the right 
side of each character is its pronunciation in Corean, and on the 
left the equivalent Corean Word. The sounds are first learned, then 
the meaning, and finally the syntax and the sense of the passages. 
Meanwhile the brush-pen is kept busily employed until the whole 
text of the author is thoroughly mastered by eye, ear, hand, and 
memory. In this manner, the other classics are committed. Edu- 
cation at first consists entirely of reading, vn:iting, and memoriz- 
ing. Etiquette is also rigidly attended to, but arithmetic, mathe- 
matics, and science receive but slight attention. 

After this severe exercise of memory and with the pen, the 
critical study of the text is begun. Passages are expounded by 
the teacher, and the commentaries are consulted. Essays on lite- 
rary themes are written, and a style of elegant composition in 
prose and verse is striven for. For the literary examinations in 
the capital and provinces, the government appoints examiners, who 
give certificates to those who pass. Those who succeed at the 
provincial tests, are eligible only to subordinate grades of employ 
in the local magistracies. The aspirants to higher honors, armed 
with their diplomas, set out to Seoul to attend at the proper time 
the national examination. The journey of these lads, full of the 
exultation and Uvely spirit born of success, moving in hilarious 
revelry over the high roads, form one of the picturesque features 
of out-door hfe in Corea. The young men hving in the same dis- 
trict or town go together. They go afoot, taking their servants 
with them. Pluming themselves upon the fact that they are sum- 
moned to the capital at the royal behest, they often make a roy- 
stering, noisy, and insolent gang, and conduct themselves very 
much as they please. The rustics and villagers gladly speed their 
parting. At the capital they scatter, putting up wherever accom- 
modations in inns or at the houses of relatives permit. 

Though 5'oung bachelors form the majority at these examina- 
tions, the married and middle-aged are by no means absent. 
Gray-headed men try and may be rejected for the twentieth time, 
and grandfather, father, and son occasionally apply together. 

On the appointed day, the several thousand or more competi- 
tors assemble at the appointed place, with the provisions which are 
to stay the inner man during the ordeal. The hour preparatory to 
the assignment of themes is a noisy and smoky one, devoted to 
study, review, declamation, or to eating, drinking, chatting, or 



342 COREA. 

sleeping, according to the inclination or habit of each. The ex- 
amination consists of essays, and oral and written answers to ques- 
tions. During the silent part of his work, each candidate occupies 
a stall or cell. The copious, minute, and complex vocabulary of 
terms in the language relating to the work, success and failure, the 
contingencies, honest and dishonest shifts to secure success, and 
what may be called the student's slang and folk-lore of the subject, 
make not only an interesting study to the foreigner, but show that 
these contests subtend a large angle of the Corean gentleman's 
vision during much of his lifetime. 

Examination over, the disappointed ones wend their way home 
with what resignation or philosophy they may summon to their aid. 
The successful candidates, on horseback, with bands of musicians, 
visit their patrons, relatives, the examiners and high dignitaries, re- 
ceiving congratulations and returning thanks. Then follows the 
inevitable initiation, which none can escape — corresponding to 
the French " baptism of the line," the German " introduction to the 
fox," the English "fagging," and the American "hazing." 

One of the parents or friends of the new graduate, an " alum- 
nus," or one who has taken a degree himself, one also of the s£ime 
political party, acts as godfather, and presides at the ceremony. 
The graduate presents himself, makes his salute and takes his seat 
several feet behind the president of the party. With all gravity 
the latter proceeds, after rubbing up some ink on an ink-stone, to 
smear the face of the victim with the black mess, which while wet 
he powders thickly over with flour. Happy would the new gradu- 
ate be could he escape with one layer of ink and flour, but the 
roughness of the joke hes in this, that every one present has his 
daub ; and when the victim thinks the ordeal is over new persons 
drop in to ply the ink -brush and handful of flour. Meanwhile a 
carnival of fun is going on at the expense, moral and pecuniary, of 
the graduate. Eating, drinking, smoking, and jesting are the or- 
der of the day. It is impossible to avoid this trial of purse and 
patience, for unless the victim is generous and good-natured, other 
tricks and jokes as savage and cruel as those sometimes in vogue 
in American and British colleges follow. After this farce, but not 
until it has been undergone, is the title recognized by society. 

The three degrees, corresponding somewhat to our B.A., M.A., 
andPh.D., are cho-si, chin-sa, kiup-chiei. The diplomas are awarded 
in the king's name, the second written on white paper, and the third 
on red adorned with garlands of flowers. The degrees are not 



EDUCATION AND CULTURR 343 

necessarily successive. The highest, or the second, may be applied 
for without the first. The holder of the second degree may obtain 
office in the provinces, and after some years may become a district 
magistrate or guardian of one of the royal sepulchres. The high- 
est degree qualifies one to fill honorable posts at the palace and in 
the capital, in one of the ministries, or to be the governor of a pro- 
vince, or of a great city. Properly, the place of a ** doctor " is in 
Seoul. The usual term of office is two years. 

The examinations for civil titles and offices attract students of 
the highest social grade. The military studies are chiefly those of 
archery or horsemanship, the literary part of their exercises being 
sUght. But one degree, the lowest, is awarded, and if the holder 
is of gentle blood, and has poHtical influence, he may rise to lucra- 
tive office and honors, but if from the common people, he usually 
gets no more than his title, or remains a private or petty officer. 

The system of literary examinations which, when first established, 
and during two or three centuries, was vigorously maintained with 
impartiality, is said to be at present in a state of decay, bribery 
and official favor being the causes of its decline. 

The special schools of languages, mathematics, medicine, art, 
etc., are under the patronage of the government. The teachers 
and students in these branches of knowledge form a special class 
midway between the nobles and people, having some of the privi- 
leges of the former. They may also attend the examinations, gain 
diplomas, and fill offices. Their professions are usually hereditary, 
and they marry only among themselves. In most respects, these 
bodies of learned men resemble the old guilds of scholars in Yedo, 
and the privileged classes, like physicians, astronomers, botanists, 
etc., in Japan. 

There are eight distinct departments of special knowledge. The 
Corps of Interpreters include students and masters of the Chinese, 
Manchiu, Mongol, and Japanese languages. These attend the em- 
bassy to Peking, have posts on the frontier, or live near Fusan. 
The treaties recently made with the United States and European 
powers will necessitate the establishment of schools of foreign lan- 
guages, as in Tokio and Peking. 

The School of Astronomy, geoscopy, and the choice of fortunate 
days for state occasions is for the special service of the king. 
Corea, like China, has not yet separated astrology from astronomy, 
but stiU keeps up official consultation with the heavenly bodies for 
luck's sake. The School of Medicine trains physicians for the royal, 



344 CORBA. 

and for the public, service. The School of Charts or documents 
has charge of the archives and the preparation of the official reports 
sent to Peking. In the School of Design, the maps, sketches, plans 
and graphic work required by the government are made, and the 
portraits of the king are painted. The School of Law is closely 
connected with the Ministry of Justice, and serves for the instruc- 
tion of judges, and as a court of appeals. The School of Mathe- 
matics or Accounts assists the Treasury Department, audits ac- 
counts, appraises values, and its members are often charged with 
the task of overseeing public works. The School of Horology at 
Seoul keeps the standard time and looks after the water-clock. 
Beside these eight services, there is the band of palace musicians. 

It is evident from all the information gathered from sources 
within and without the hermit nation, that though there is culture of 
a certain sort among the upper classes, there is little popular edu- 
cation worthy of a name. The present condition of Cho-sen is that 
of Europe in the Middle Ages. The Confucian temples and halls 
of scholars, the memorial stones and walls inscribed with historical 
tablets and moral maxims, the lectures and discussions of literary 
coteries, and the poetry parties concentrate learning rather than 
diffuse it. The nobles and wealthy scholars, the few monasteries 
and the government offices possess libraries, but these are but 
dead Chinese to the common people. Nothing like the number of 
book stores, circulating libraries, private schools, or ordinary means 
of diffusing intelligence, common in China and Japan, exists in 
Corea. Science and the press, newspapers and hospitals, clocks 
and petroleum, and, more than all, churches and school-houses, have 
yet a mighty work to do in the Land of Morning Calm. 

Paganism and superstition, Confucianism and Buddhism, hav- 
ing taken root in Cho-sen, each with its educational influence, 
Christianity entered within the last century to plant an acorn 
within the narrow bottle of the Corean intellect. It is needless to 
say that the receptacle was shattered by the spreading of the oak. 
The Corean body-politic, confronted by this rooted and growing- 
influence, must be transformed. How the seed was dropped, how 
the tiny stem grew, how the trunk received into its bosom the 
lightning bolts of persecution, how the boughs were riven, and how 
life yet remains, wiU now be narrated. 



III. 

MODERN AND RECENT 
HISTORY. 



MODEEIf AI^D EEOENT HISTOEY. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY— 1784-1794. 

Cheistianity entered Corea through the gates of Eome and 
Peking. Though some writers have supposed that Christianity was 
introduced into the Corean peninsula by the Japanese, in 1592, yet 
it is nearly certain that this religion was popularly unknown until 
near the end of the eighteenth century. Then it entered from the 
west, and not from the east. It was not brought by foreigners, 
but grew up from chance seed wafted from the little garden of the 
church in Peking. 

The soil upon which the exotic germ first lighted was in the 
mind of a student well-named by his father, " Stonewall," on ac- 
count of his character in choosing a literary career, instead of the 
hereditary profession which his family wished him to adopt. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1777, Stonewall was invited to form one of a 
party of students who were to spend a season of literary dalliance 
in company with the famous Confucian professor, Kwem. 

The conference, held in a secluded temple, lasted ten days, 
during which time the critical study of the texts of Confucius and 
Mencius was indulged in with keen delight, and the profoundest 
problems that can interest man were earnestly discussed ; but 
most fertilizing to their minds were some tracts on philosophy, 
mathematics, and religion just brought from Peking. These were 
translations of the writings, or original compositions in Chinese of 
the Jesuits in the imperial capital. Among these publications were 
some tracts on the Christian and Koman Catholic Religion, treating 
of the Existence of God, Divine Providence, the Immortality of the 
Soul, the Conduct of Life, the Seven Capital Sins, and the Seven 



348 COREA. 

Contrary Virtues. Surprised and delighted, they resolved to attain, 
if possible, to a full understanding of the new doctrines. 

They began at once to practise what they knew, and morning 
and evening they read and prayed. They set apart the 7th, 14th, 
21st and 28th days of the month as periods of rest, fasting, and 
meditation. How long they continued this course of life is not 
known. 

Stonewall, well knowing that his ideas of this new religion were 
imperfect and confused, turned his thoughts longingly toward 
Peking, hoping to get more books or information through a living 
teacher. For several years all his attempts were fruitless ; though 
study, discussion, and practice of the new life were continued. In 
1782, he moved to Seoul to live, and in 1783, to his joy, his friend 
Senghuni, son of the third ambassador to Peking, proceeded thither 
through Shing-king (Liao Tung), with a message to the bishop^ 
Alexander de Gorla, a Portuguese Franciscan. 

Senghuni himself became a docile pupil, and was, with the con- 
sent of his father, baptized. With the hope that he would become 
the first stone of the church in Cho-sen, he was named Peter.' 
He pledged himself to suffer all torments rather than abandon his 
faith, to have but one wife, to renounce worldly vanities, and finally 
to send his foreign friends tidings every year. 

Safely passing the sentinels at Ai-chiu, he reached Seoul. 
Stonewall, eagerly receiving his share, gave himself for a time up to 
fresh reading and meditation, and then began to preach. Some of 
his friends in the capital, both nobles and commoners, embraced 
the new doctrines with cheering promptness and were baptized. 

' It is interesting to note the choice of baptismal names. As 
Stonewall had been the forerunner, he was named John the Bap- 
tist. Another called himself Francis Xavier, intending to make 
this saint his protector and patron. Other names of these primitive 
confessors are Ambrose, Paul, Louis, Thomas, Augustine, and later, 

^ The equipment of this first native missionary propagandist of Roman Chris- 
tianity in Corea, deserves notice, as it brings out in sharp contrast the differ- 
ing methods of Roman and Reformed Christianity. The convert brought 
back numerous tracts, didactic and polemic treatises, catechisms and com- 
mentaries, prayer-books, lives of the saints, etc., etc. These were for the 
learned, and those able to master them. For the simple, there was a goodly 
supply of crosses and crucifixes, images, pictures, and various other objects to 
strike the eye. It is not stated that the Bible, or any part of the Holy Scrip" 
tures, was sent for the feeding of hungry souls. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY— 1784-1794. 349 

among the women, Agatha, Marie, Madeleine, Barbe, etc. The 
adoption of these foreign names excited bitter feelings among the 
patriotic, and became a cause of intense hatred against the Chris- 
tians, who were stigmatized as " foreigner-Coreans." 

A counterblast soon followed. The first, and as they were des- 
tined to be the last and most bitter enemies were the literati, who 
saw at once that the new faith sapped at the base their national 
beHefs and their most cherished customs. In the contest of dis- 
cussion which followed, Senghuni came off victor. The pagan 
champions retired from the conflict uttering memorable and pro- 
phetic words, with a final question, that became a by-word to 
Americans nearly a century later : " This [Christian] doctrine is 
magnificent, it is true, but it will bring sorrow to those who pro- 
fess it. What are you going to do about it ? " 

Among the converts were the lecturer Kwem and his brother, 
both of whom propagated the faith in their district of Yang-kun, 
thirty miles east of Seoul, now justly called "the cradle of the 
faith." One of their converted students from the Nai-po returned 
home to labor in the new cause, and from first to last, in the his- 
tory of Roman Christianity in Corea, Nai-po has ever been a nur- 
sery of fervent confessors and illustrious martyrs. A second con- 
vert of the Kwem brothers laid the foundations of the faith in 
Chulla. At the capital, a learned interpreter, on becoming a be- 
liever, multiplied with his own facile pen copies of the books 
brought from Peking ; and it is believed translated from the 
Chinese the " Explanation of the Gospels of the Sabbaths and 
Feasts " — the first Christian book in the Corean language. 

Thus from small beginnings, but rapidly, were the Christian 
ideas spread, but soon the arm of the law and the power of the 
pen were invoked to crush out the exotic faith. The first victim, 
Thomas Kim, was tried on the charge of destroying his ancestral 
tablets, tortured, and sent into exile, in which he soon after died. 
The scholar now took up weapons, and in April, 1784, the king's 
preceptor fulminated the first public document officially directed 
against Christianity. In it all parents and relatives were entreated 
to break off all relations with the Christians. The names of the 
leaders were published ; and the example of Kim was cited. 
Forthwith began a violent pressure of entreaty and menace upon 
the beHevers to renounce their faith. Instead of peace, the sword 
was brought into the household. Then began an exhibition alike 
of glorious confession and shameful apostasy, but though even 



350 COREA. 

stonewall lapsed, the work went on in Nai-po, and in 1787/ per- 
secution slackened. 

Meanwhile, in order to cement more closely their bonds, the 
leaders formed a hierarchy after the model which Peter had seen in 
Peking, and to which their liturgical books so often referred. 
Francis Xavier was made bishop and others were chosen as priests. 
Separating to their various posts, they baptized, confessed, con- 
firmed, and distributed the sacred elements in communion, all of 
which infused a new glow of faith among the converts. They 
robed themselves in rich Chinese silk, and erected platform con- 
fessionals. For ordinary faults confessed by the kneeling penitents 
alms were ordered, but for graver derelictions the priests ad- 
ministered one or two smart blows on the legs — a mild imitation of 
the national punishment, which so suggests Western methods of 
nursery discipline. 

In perfect good faith and harmony, this curious hierarchy, so 
strange and even comical to a believer in the so-called " apostolical 
succession " — continued for two years ; but in 1789, certain 
passages in their books suggested doubts as to the validity of their 
ministry. After earnest thought, and even at the risk of public 
ridicule, and of troubling the consciences of the faithful, they re- 
signed their of&ces and took their places among the laity. A letter 
of inquiry was written, and sent in 1790 by the convert Paul to 
Peking. Surprised and overjoyed at the news from Corea, the 
fathers baptized and confirmed Paul, explained to him the Roman 
dogma of validity of ordination, and gave him a letter written on 
silk, to be concealed in his clothes, directed to Peter and Francis 
Xavier. His godfather Pansi, being an artist, painted Paul's 
portrait in oil, which was sent on to Paris. 

The Christians at Seoul graciously submitted to the Episcopal 
rebuke and explanation, giving them the right only to baptize, yet 

^ It was during the summer of this year, 1787, that La Perouse sailed 
along the eastern coast of Cho-sen, discovered the straits which bear his 
name, between Yezo and Saghalin, demonstrated that the Gulf of Tartary 
divided Saghalin from the Asian mainland, and that Corea was not sea-girt, 
and named Dagelet Island and its companion Boussole. He had a copy of 
Hamel's book with him. He noticed the signal-fires along the coast, which 
from headland to headland, telegraphed to the capital the news of the stranger 
with his ''black ships." Not as yet, however, as afterward, did the govern- 
ment connect the appearance of European vessels with the activity of the 
Christians within the realm, although La Perouse sailed under the flag whicli 
ever afterward was indissolubly associated in Corean minds with Christianity. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY— 1784-1794. 351 

they yearned to receive the sacraments. Inflamed by the accounts 
of Paul, who pictured before them the ritual splendors, in the 
Peking cathedral, of altars, lights, vestments, solemn masses, 
music, processions, and all that enchants the eye and fires the 
imagination in the Koman form of Christianity, they indited 
another letter to the bishop, beseeching that an ordained priest 
should be sent them. This letter, carried by Paul, vrho left vdth 
the special embassy sent to congTatulate the renowned emperor 
Kien-lung, which left Seoul September 17, 1790, contained a whole 
catechism of vexed questions of discipline and faith which had be- 
gun to disturb the little church. 

While in Peking, Paul's companion was baptized, receiving the 
name of John the Baptist. The fathers gave them a chalice, a 
missal, a consecrated stone, some altar ornaments, and everything 
necessary for the celebration of the eucharist, with a recipe for 
making wine out of grapes, in order that all might be ready on the 
arrival of a priest among them. Paul and John the Baptist, after 
the return journey of a thousand miles through Shing-king, 
arrived safely in Seoul. All were filled with joy at the idea of 
having a priest sent them, but the episcopal decision against the 
worship of ancestors proved to many a stone of stumbling and a 
cause of apostasy. Hitherto, in simple ignorance and good faith, 
they had honored their ancestral shades and burnt incense at 
their shrines. Henceforth, all participation in such rites was im- 
possible. After the authoritative declaration from Peking, that 
the worship of God and the worship of ancestors were contrary 
and impossible, no Corean could be a Christian while he burned 
incense before the tablets. 

This tenet of the bishop was in the eyes of the Corean public a 
blow at the framework of society, the base of the family, and the 
foundation of the state. From this time forward, many of the 
feeble adherents began to fall away. In the conflict of filial and 
religious duty, many a soul was torn with remorse. In frequent 
instances the earnest believer who, for conscience sake, despoiled 
the family oratory and piling the ancestral tablets in his garden 
set them on fire, saw his aged parents sink with sorrow to the 
grave. For this crime Paul and Jacques Kim were put upon pub- 
lic trial, at which, for the first time, a clear and systematic presen- 
tation of Christian doctrine and the Roman cultus was elicited. 
The case, after condemnation of the prisoners, was submitted to the 
king, who was prevailed upon by the premier to approve the find- 



352 COREA. 

ing of the local tribunal. On December 8, 1791, the two Chris- 
tians, after publicly refusing to recant, and reading aloud the sen- 
tence inscribed upon the board to be nailed over their pillory, were 
decapitated, while invoking the names of Jesus and Mary. Their 
ages were thirty-three and forty-one. 

Thus was shed the first blood for Corean Christianity — the first 
drops of the shower to come, and the seed of a mighty church. 
The headless trunks, frozen to a stony rigidity which kept even the 
blood fresh and red, lay unburied on the ground for nine days, un- 
til devout men carried them to burial. A number of handkerchiefs 
dipped in their blood and preserved kept long alive the memory of 
these first martyrs of bloody persecution. The Nai-po now became 
a hunting-ground for the minions of the magistrates, who sought 
out all who professed themselves Christians and threw them in 
prison. There the tortures, peculiarly Corean, were set to work to 
cause apostasy. The victims were beaten with rods and paddles 
on the flesh and shin-bones, or whipped till the flesh hung in 
bloody rags. In many cases their bones were disjointed until the 
limbs dangled limp and useless. One man, Francis Xavier, after 
prolonged agonies was exiled to Quelpart, and on being removed 
to another place, died on the way. Peter, 61 years old, after 
wearying his torturers with his endurance, was tied round with a 
cord, laid on the icy ground at night, while pails of water were 
poured over him, which freezing as it fell, covered his body with a 
shroud of ice. In this Dantean tomb, the old martyr, calling on 
the name of Jesus, was left to welcome death, which came to him 
at the second cock-crow on the morning of January 29, 1793. 

In the ten years following the baptism of Peter at Peking, in 
spite of persecution and apostasy, it is estimated that there were 
four thousand Christians in Corea.' 

' This rapid spread of Christian ideas may be understood if we consider, 
as Dallet points out, the customs of the people. In every house there is the 
room open to the street, where everybody, friend or stranger, known or un- 
known, may come and talk or hear the news and discuss events. Nothing is 
kept secret, and being a nation of gossips and loungers, the news of any event, 
or the expression of a fresh idea, spreads like fire on the prairie. A doctrine 
so startlingly new, and preached as it was by men already famous for their 
learning, would at once excite the public curiosity, set all tongues running, 
and fire many hearts. Though in most cases the new flame would soon die 
out, leaving hardly enough ashes to mark a fire, yet the steady glow of altered 
lives would not pale even before torture and death. 



CHAPTER XL. 

PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM— 1801-1834. 

The first attempt of a foreign missionary to enter the hermit 
kingdom from the west was made in February, 1791. Jean dos 
Remedios, a Portuguese priest from Macao, offered himself, was ac- 
cepted, and left Peking for the Border Gate with some Chinese 
guides. After a twenty days' journey in midwinter, he arrived on 
the frontier, and there awaited the precarious chances of recognition, 
according to certain signs agreed upon. For ten days he scanned 
the faces of the noisy crowd, hoping every moment to hght upon 
friends, but in vain. The Christians, kept at home by the violence 
of the persecution, feared to venture to the border. The fair 
closed, the embassy crossed the Yalu River, while the foreigner and 
his Chinese guides returned to Peking. There the disappointed 
priest soon after died. 

About the same time, the Bishop of Peking addressed a letter 
to the Pope detailing the origin, development, and condition of 
the new-born church in Corea. 

Hearing no word from the Corean Christians during the next 
two years, it was determined to send succor. For this perilous 
mission, a young Chinese priest named Jacques Tsiu, twenty-four 
years old, of good bodily strength and pronounced piety, whose 
visage closely resembled a Corean's, was selected. Fortified with 
extraordinary ecclesiastical powers, he left Peking in February, 
1794, and in twenty days arrived on the neutral ground. There 
he met the Christians, who urged him to wait nearly a year, on ac- 
count of the vigilance of the sentinels. This he did among his fel- 
low Christians in Shing-king, and on the night of December 23, 
1794, crossed the Yalu, reached Seoul in safety, and at once began 
his labors. All went on well till June, when, through a treacherous 
visitor, the official spies were put upon his track. In spite of his 
removal to another place, three Christians — two who had guided 
him to Seoul, and one an interpreter, who in sublime self-sacrifice 
23 



354 COREA. 

tried to pass himself off as the Chinaman — were seized and tor* 
tured. With arms and legs dislocated, and knees crushed, thej 
refused to betray their brother in the faith, and were put to death 
in prison, June 18. The three headless and battered trunks were 
flung in the Han Kiver, which for the first, but not for the last time 
was streaked with martyr blood. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese priest was at first hidden for many days 
under a wood-pile by a Christian lady, who, having gained over her 
mother-in-law, sheltered him in her house, where, protected by the 
law which forbids a noble's dwelling to be invaded, he remained 
three years. In September, 1796, he wrote a letter in Latin to the 
Bishop of Peking, and the native Christians writing in Chinese, 
the copies on silk were sewed into the garments of two behevers, 
who, having bought positions as servants in the embassy, arrived 
in Peking, January 28, 1797. Among other things Jacques pro- 
posed that the King of Portugal should send an embassy to 
the King of Cho-sen to obtain a treaty of friendship, and allow 
the residence of physicians, astronomers, and scientific men in 
Corea. 

Though no Portuguese envoy was sent out to treat with the 
court of Seoul, ^ a foreign vessel appeared in the autumn of this 
same year, off the eastern coast, floating the British flag. It was 
the sloop of war Providence, carrying sixteen guns, commanded by 
Captain W. R. Broughton, who cast anchor in Yung-hing Bay, 
October 4th, and touched at Fusan.^ One of the natives who vis- 
ited the ship was suspected by the government and arrested ; 
though the English visitors were ignorant of the existence of Chris- 
tians in Corea, and the local magistrates were equally uninformed 
as to the difference in religion and nationality between Britons and 
Portuguese. 

The four political parties into which the Corean nobility was at 
this time divided, as described in Chapter XXV., were ranged into 

^ " Some priests proposed to tlie late Queen of Portugal to send an embassy 
hither [to Corea] with some gentlemen versed in mathematics, that they might 
benefit the country both in a religious and scientific way. . . . This plan 
never succeeded." Gutzlaff, 1834. Voyages to China, page 261. 

2 Captain Broughton was impressed with "the gorgeous Corean dresses," 
and the umbrella-hats, a yard in diameter. He asked for beef, but they gave 
him only wood, and he was tantalized with the sight of fat cattle grazing near 
by, which he was unable to get or purchase. He cruised in the Sea of Japan 
and the Gulf of Tartary, naming several places on the Corean coast. See 
p. 203. 



PERSECUTION AXD MARTYRDOM. 



365 




356 COREA. 

two general groups, tlie Si-pai and the Piek-pai, " the govern^ 
ment" and "the opposition." The Si-pai were devoted to the king, 
and ready to second his views, the Piek-pai were more attached to 
their special views. The king, Cheng-chong, who had ruled since 
1776, was opposed to persecution of the Christians, and had done 
much to restrain the bitterness of partisans. The Si-pai in- 
cluded the Nam-in, or " Southern " wing, in which were the Chris- 
tian nobles, while all their enemies belonged to the Piek-pai. 
So long as the king lived, the sword of persecution slept in its scab- 
bard, but in 1800 ^ the king died, and was succeeded by his son, 
Suncho, a boy still under the care of his grandmother. This lady 
at once assumed the conduct of national affairs,^ and no sooner were 
the five months of public moui-ning decently over, than the queen 
regent dismissed the ministers then in office, and installed three 
others of the No-ron group, all of whom were bitter enemies of the 
Christians. A decree of general persecution was issued a few days 
after, in the name of the king. Two converts of noble rank were 
at once arrested, and during 1801, the police were busy in hahng 
to prison believers of every rank, age, and sex. Alexander Wang, 
who had written a book in his native language on " The Prin- 
cipal Articles of the Christian Keligion," and had begun another 
on systematic theology, was arrested. From the reading of 
these works, the magistrates imagined the essence of Christianity 
was in hatred of one's parents and the king, and the destruction 
of the human race.' The Church Calendar was also seized. 

The Chinese priest was outlawed by the government, in a public 
proclamation. On reading this, the brave man left the house of the 
noble lady in which he had been sheltered, and refusing to endan- 
ger longer the lives of his friends, voluntarily surrendered himself. 



1 See page 226. 

^ Or, as tlie natives saj, " she proceeded to pull down the blinds." This 
phrase, which is highly suggestive of American street slang, refers to the 
curtain of bamboo which veils the sovereign of Cho-sen ; as in Old Japan 
the mikado was thus screened from the vulgar, and even noble, gaae dur- 
ing state councils. Whoever, therefore, is "behind the curtain," is on the 
throne. 

^ This highly logical conclusion was reached by pondering upon the doc- 
trine of Romanism that celibacy is a more perfect state than marriage ; and 
that ''the world," which, with the flesh and the devil, was to be regarded as 
one of the true believers' enemies, could mean only the king and country of 
Cho-sen. To this day, most of the pagans accept the magistrates' decision as a 
complete epitome of the gospel of Christ. 



PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM. 351 

and received the death-st'foke, May 31, 1801, at the age of thirty- 
two. His hostess, Colombe, thrown in prison herself, while await- 
ing death wrote out his life and works on the silk skirt of her 
dress. At her execution the noble lady begged that she might 
not be stripped of her clothes, as were other malefactors, but die 
in her robes. Her request was granted, and with the grace of the 
English Lady Jane Grey, she laid her head on the block. Four 
other women, formerly attendants in the palace, and an artist, who 
for painting Christian subjects was condemned, were beheaded by 
the official butchers, who made the " Little Western Gate " of 
Seoul — where a Christian church may yet be built — a Golgotha. 
The policy of the government was shown in making away with the 
Christians of rank and education, who might be able to direct 
affairs in the absence of the foreign priests, and in letting the poor 
and humble go free. 

From a letter written on silk in sympathetic ink to the Bishop 
of Peking by Alexander Wang, and, with the aid of treachery, de- 
ciphered by the magistrates, they suspected a general conspiracy 
of the Christians ; for in his letter this Corean proposed an appeal 
to the Christian nations of Europe to send sixty or seventy thou- 
sand soldiers to conquer Corea ! ^ The bearer of this letter was 
immediately beheaded, and his body cut into six pieces ; while 
the visitor to Captain Broughton's ship in 1799, for having said 
that "one such ship as that could easily destroy one hundred 
Corean vessels of war," was put to the torture and condemned. 
Alexander Wang, who had witnessed a good confession, before 
the king, a year before, and bore on his wrist the cord of crimson 
silk showing that he had touched the royal person, was likewise 
decapitated. 

It now devolved upon the king of Cho-sen to explain to his 
suzerain the execution of a Chinese subject. In a letter full of 
Confucian orthodoxy, he declares that Cho-sen from the time of Ki 
Tsze, had admitted no other dogmas than those taught by the 
sages of China — "all other doctrine is strange to the Little 
Kingdom." He describes the Christians as " the monstrous, bar- 
barous, and infamous " "sect of brigands" "who live like brutes 
and birds of the vilest sort," and who in their plot, "have 
interlaced themselves as a serpent and knotted themselves to- 
gether like a cord." The plan to conquer "the Little King- 



Dallet, vol. i. , p. 205. 



358 COREA. 

dom at the comer of the earth" by myriads of men and ves- 
sels from Europe is detailed, with an apology for the execution oi 
Jacques, not as a Chinese subject, but as chief conspirator. Pal- 
let suggests that, in answer to this letter, the Dragon Monarch 
read the king a tart lecture, and hinted that a rich stream 
of silver would soothe his ruffled scales. "China had not 
been China had she lost so fair an occasion to fleece her cowering 
vassal." 

A fresh edict, made up of the usual fixed ammunition of Corean 
rhetoric, was fulminated against " the evil sect," January 25, 1802. 
The result was to advertise the outlawed faith in every corner of 
the realm. Nevertheless, the condition of the Christians scattered 
in the mountains and northern forests, or suffering poverty, hun- 
ger, and cold at home, was deplorable, under the stress of political 
as well as religious hatred. 

The first exchange of Muscovite and Corean courtesies took 
place in 1808, when several of the commissioners from Seoul 
were in Peking.* Presents were mutually given, which in 
both cases were products of the then widely separated coun- 
tries, which were destined within fifty years to be next-door 
neighbors. 

Out of the modern catacombs of Roman Christianity, the 
Corean converts addressed two letters, dated December 9 and 18, 
1811, to the Pope—" the Very High, Very Great Father, Chief of 
the whole Church" — in which they invited help, not only of a spir- 
itual nature, but aid in ships and envoys to treat with their king. 
They were willing even to leave their native land and colonize the 
islands in the sea, for the sake of worship and conscience. Signed 
with fictitious names, copied on silk, and sewn in the clothing of 
the messenger, they reached Peking and Eome, but the bishop 
of neither city could afford succor. His Holiness was then a 
prisoner at Fontainebleau, and the Roman propaganda was 
nearly at a standstill. With a goodly supply of medals and 
crosses, the messenger returned, and the church in Corea enjoyed 
peace, and new converts were made until 1815, when a non-po- 
litical persecution broke out for a while in Kang-wen and Kiung- 
sang. 

In 1817, the king and court were terrified by the appearance oi! 

' Timkowski's Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to China, 
and Residence in Peking, London, 1827. 



PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM. 359 

the west coast of the British ' vessels Alceste and Lyra. They sus- 
pected that the good captain and jolly surgeon, who have given us 
such fascinating narratives of their cruise, were in active connection 
with " the evil sect ; " but beyond some surveys, purchases of beef, 
and interviews with local magistrates, the foreigners departed 
without further designs against the throne. 

In 1823 several of the Christians, encouraged by hopes held 
out by the Bishop of Peking, went to the Border Gate to meet a 
foreign priest, but to their dismay found none. In 1826,^ they 
were troubled by a report that the sho-gun of Japan had requested 
their king to return six Japanese adherents of the interdicted 
" Jesus sect," who had fled the empire in a boat. Shortly after, in 
Chulla, through a quarrel instigated by a drunken potter, a con- 
vert, which led to information given in spite, a severe persecution 
broke out, lasting three months. 

The year 1832 was noted for its rainfall and inundations. 
To propitiate Heaven's favor the king recalled many exiles, among 
whom were Christians. In this year also the British ship. Lord 
Amherst, was sent out by the East India Company on a voyage 
of commercial exploration, and to open, if possible, new mar- 
kets for the fabrics of England and India. On board was a Prus- 
sian gentleman, the Eev. Charles Gutzlaff, under the patronage 
of the Netherlands Missionary Society, though travelling at his 
own cost. Beaching the coast of Chulla, July 17th, he remained 
one month. Being a good Chinese scholar, and well equipped with 
medical knowledge, he landed on several of the islands and on 
the mainland, he distributed presents of books, buttons, and 
medicines, planted potatoes and taught their cultivation. Through 
an officer he sent the king presents of cut glass, calicoes, and 
woollen goods, with a copy of the Bible and some Protestant 
Christian tracts. These, after some days of negotiation, were re- 
fused. A few of the more intelligent natives risked their heads, 
and accepted various gifts, among which were Chinese translations 

' In 1793, the first British and the first European vessel entered the Yellow 
Sea. It was the ship of the line Lion, on board of which was Lord Macartney, 
the ambassador of King George III. to Peking, the first English envoy to 
China. The ship did not visit or approach Corean shores. 

^ This date is that given by Dallet, who perhaps refers to the uprising in 
1829 at Ozaka, of suspected believers in the "Jesus doctrine," when six men 
and one old woman were crucified by the Japanese authorities. The leader 
of the so-called conspiracy fled to sea with his companions. 



360 COREA. 

of European works on geography and mathematics. Mr. Gutzlaff 
could discover no trace of Christianity' or the converts, though he 
made diligent inquiry. The lying magistrates denied all knowledge 
of even the existence of the Christian faith. Deeply impressed 
with their poverty, dirt, love of drink, and degradation, the Prot- 
estant, after being nearly a month among the Coreans, left their 
shores, fully impressed with their need of soap and bibles. 

The year 1834 closed the first half century of Corean Chris- 
tianity. 

In this chapter, the moral weakness of Koman Catholic methods 
of evangelization in Corea, and elsewhere in Asia, has been revealed. 
It must be remembered that the Corean converts were taught to 
beHeve not only in the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Pope, but 
also in the righteousness of his claim to temporal power as the 
Vicar of Heaven. Untaught in the Scriptures of the New Testament, 
and doubtless ignorant of the words of Jesus — " My kingdom is 
not of this world ; if my kingdom were of this world, then would 
my servants fight " — the Coreans suspected no blasphemy in the 
papal claim. Seeing the Pope's political power upheld by the pow- 
erful European nations then under Bourbon rule, the Corean Chris- 
tians, following the ethics of their teachers, played the part of trait- 
ors to their country ; they not only deceived the magistrates, and 
violated their country's laws, but, as the letter of Alexander Wang 
shows, actually invited armed invasion. Hence from the first 
Christianity was associated in patriotic minds with treason and 
robbery. The French missionary as the forerunner of the French 
soldier and invader, the priest as the pilot of the gunboat, were not 
mere imaginings, but, as the subsequent narrative shows, strict logic 
and actual fact. It is the narrative of friends, not foes, that, later, 
shows us a bishop acting as spy and pilot on a French man-of-war, 
a priest as guide to a buccaneering raid ; and, after the story of 
papal Christianity, the inevitable "French expedition." 

' While off the island of Wen-san, according to Dallet, some of the native 
Christians, attracted by the legend in Chinese characters on the flag "The 
Religion of Jesus Christ," came on board. *' A Protestant minister saluted 
them with the words which are sacramental among the pagans, ' May the 
spirits of the earth bless you ! ' At these words the neophytes, seeing that they 
had been deceived, and that a snare had been laid for their good faith, re- 
tired in all haste without ever returning the salute, and made no further visits 
to the ships." 



CHAPTEK XLI. 

THE ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES— 1835-1845. 

The French Kevolution, and the wars of Napoleon following, 
which distracted all Europe for a period of over twenty years, com- 
pletely disorganized the missionary operations of the Holy See 
and French Koman Catholic Church. On the restoration of the 
Bourbons, and the strengthening of the papal throne by foreign 
bayonets, the stream of reHgious activity flowed anew into its old 
channels, and with an added volume. Missionary zeal in the 
church was kindled afresh, and the prayers of the Christians in the 
far East were heard at the court of St. Peter. It was resolved to 
found a mission in Corea, directly attached to the Holy See, but to 
be under the care of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. 

Barthelemy Brugiere, then a missionary at Bangkok, Siam, 
offered as a volunteer, and in 1832 was nominated apostoHc Vicar 
of Corea. He reached Shing-king, but was seized with sudden 
illness, and died October 20, 1835. Pierre Philibert Maubant, his 
host, stepped into the place of his fallen comrade, and with five 
Corean Christians left Fung-Wang Chang, crossed the neutral 
strip, and the Yalu Kiver on the ice. Dodging the sentinels at Ai- 
chiu, he entered Corea as a thread enters the needle's eye. They 
crawled through a water-drain in the wall, and despite the barking 
of a dog, got into the city. Resting several hours, they slid out 
again through another drain, reaching the country and friends 
beyond. Two days' journey on horses brought them to Seoul, from 
which Maubant, the first Frenchman who had penetrated the 
hermit kingdom, or who, in Corean phrase, had committed pem- 
kiong (violation of the frontier), wrote to his friends in Paris. 

Maubant's first duty was to order back a Chinese priest who 
refused to learn Corean, or to obey any but the Bishop of Peking. 
With the couriers who escorted the refractory Chinaman to the 
frontier, went three young men to study at the college in Macao. 
At the Border Gate they met Jacques Honore Chastan a young 



862 COREA. 

French priest, who, on the dark night of January 17, 1837, passed 
the custom-house of Ai-chiu disguised as a Corean widower in 
mourning, and joined Maubant in Seoul. Nearly one year later, 
December 19, 1838, Laurent Marie-Joseph Imbert, a bishop, ran 
the gauntlet of wilderness, ice, and guards, and took up his resi- 
dence under the shadow of the king's palace. 

Visits, masses, and preaching now went on vigorously. The 
Christians at the end of 1837 numbered 6,000, and in 1838, 9,000. 
Up to January 16, 1839, the old regent being averse from persecu- 
tion, the work went on unharmed, but on that day, the court party 
in favor of extirpating Christianity, having gained the upper hand, 
hounded on the police in the king's name. The visitation of every 
group of five houses in all the eight provinces was ordered. Hun- 
dreds of suspects were at once seized and brought to trial. In June, 
before the death of the old regent, the uncle of the young king (Hen- 
chong, 1834-1849) and the implacable enemy of the Christians ob- 
tained control of power, and at an extraordinary council of the 
ministers, held July 7, 1839, a new decree was issued in the regent's 
name. The persecution now broke out with redoubled violence. 
In a few days, three native lay leaders were beheaded, and a score 
of women and children suffered death. To stay the further 
shedding of blood. Bishop Imbert, who had escaped to an island, 
came out of his hiding-place, and on August 10th dehvered himself 
up and ordered Maubant and Chastan to do the same. The three 
willing martyrs met in chains before the same tribunal. During 
three days they were put to trial and torture, thence transferred 
to the Kum-pu, or prison for state criminals of rank. They were 
again tried, beaten with sixty-six strokes of the paddle, and con- 
demned to die under the sword, September 21, 1839. 

On that day, the inspector and one hundred soldiers took their 
place on the execution ground, not near the city gate, but close to 
the river. A pole fixed in the earth bore a flag inscribed with the 
death-sentence. Pinioned and stripped of their upper clothing, a 
stick was passed between the elbows and backs of the prisoners, 
and an arrow, feather end up, run through the flesh of each ear. 
Their faces were first wet with water and then powdered with 
chalk. Three executioners then marched round, brandishing theii 
staves, while the crowd raised a yell of insult and mockery. A 
dozen soldiers, sword in hand, now began prancing around the 
kneeling victims, engaging in mock combat, but delivering their 
blows at the victims. Only when weary of their sport, the human 



ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 363 

butchers relieved the agony of their victims by the decapitating 
blow. The heads were presented to the inspector on a board, and 
the corpses, after public exposure during three days, were buried in 
the sand by the river banks. 

On the day after the burial, three Christians attempted to re- 
move the bodies, but the government spies lying in wait caught 
them. As of old in Rome, when the primitive Christians crawled 
stealthily at night through the arches of the Coliseum, into the arena, 
and groping about in the sand for the bones of Ignatius left after 
the Hon's feast, bore them to honored sepulture, so these Corean 
Christians with equal faith and valor again approached the bloody 
sand by the Han Eiver, Twenty days after the first attempt, a 
party of seven or eight men succeeded in bearing away the bodies 
of the martyrs to Noku, about eight miles north of Seoul. 

Thus died the first European missionaries who entered "the 
forbidden land." As in the old fable of the lion's den, the foot- 
prints all pointed one way. 

With the foreign leaders there perished no less than one 
hundred and thirty of their converts, seventy by decapitation, and 
the others by strangulation, torture, or the result of their wounds.^ 
In November, 1839, a new edict in the vernacular was posted up 
all over the country. Six bitter years passed before the Christians 
again had a foreign pastor. 

Great events now began to ripen in China. The opium war 
of 1840-42 broke out. The " Western Barbarians" held the chief 
cities of the China coast from Hong-Kong to Shanghae, and the 
military weakness of the colossal empire was demonstrated. The 
French, though having nothing to do with this first quarrel of 
China with Europe, were on the alert for any advantage to be 
gained in the far East. In 1841, Louis Philippe sent out the war 
vessels Erigone and Favorite, to occupy if possible some island to 
the south of Japan, which would be valuable for strategic and com- 
mercial purposes, and to make treaties of trade and friendship with 
Japan, and especially with Corea. 

^ By poetic justice, the chief instigators of this persecution came each to a 
bad end. Of the court ministers, one, having provoked the king's jealousy, was 
obliged by royal order to poison himself at a banquet, in December, 1845, and 
the other, falling into disgrace, was sent to exile, in Avhich he shortly died. 
The chief informer, who had hoped for reward in high office, obtained only a 
minor position, with little honor and less salary. He was afterward exiled, 
and in 1862, having headed a local uprising, was put to death, his body was 
minced up, and the fragments were exhibited through the provinces. 



364 



COREA. 



The Erigone cast anchor at Macao, September 7, 1841, and 
Captain Cecile awaited events. Moving north in February, 1842, 
with Andrew Kim, the Corean student, as interpreter, on the Erig- 
one, and Thomas Tsoi, his companion, on the Favorite, the French 
captains, hearing of the sudden conclusion of the war, gave up the 
idea of opening Corea. 

The two Coreans, with two French priests, engaged a Chinese 
junk, and landed on the coast of Shing-king, October 25, 1842. 
On December 23d, Kim set out for the Border Gate, and within two 
leagues of it met the outward-bound embassy. Each of the three 
hundred persons had his passport at his girdle. Stopping to see 
them file past, he saluted one who was a Christian, and had in his 
belt letters from Maubant and Chastan, written before their execu- 




The Missionary's Gateway into Corea. 

tion, and from the natives. Unable to go back with Andrew to 
Ai-chiu, as every name on the embassy's list was registered, the 
man went on to Peking. Andrew Kim, by mingling among the 
drovers and huge cattle returning from the fair, ran the blockade 
at Ai-chiu ; but on the next day, having walked all night, he ap- 
plied for lodgings at an inn for shelter, and was recognized as a 
stranger. Fearful of being arrested as a border-ruffian from the 
neutral strip, he took to his heels, recrossed the Yalu, and after 
resting at Fung-Wang Chang, rejoined his friends at Mukden. 

On December 31, 1843, Jean Joseph Ferreol was consecrated 
Bishop of Corea, and resolved to cross the frontier, not at Ai-chiu, 
but at Hun-chun, on the Tumen. Andrew Kim exploring the way, 
after a month's journey through ice and snow, mountains and 
forests, reached Hun-chun, February 25, 1845. The native Chris- 
tians, having been duly instructed, had arrived at Kion-wen a 



ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 



365 



montli before. For recognition, Andrew was to hold a blue kerchief 
in his hand and have a little red bag of tea at his girdle. At the 
fair which opened at Kion-wen on the 28th, the Christians met. 
The result of their conference was that Ai-chiu was declared safer 
even than Kion-wen. 

Since 1839, the government had tripled its vigilance, and 
doubled the guards on the frontier. No one could pass the gate 



r^ 


^^ C n-son^ / II 


> 




^r f 1 


L^ 




V^HuiiTdiun 




^~o^ 


Kion-wen \ 


/ 


'W A 


^"^ 


Tft^ 




Kion-fnn/nV [ 


o y//' JToBaiociaU 



Border Towns of Northern Corea. 

at Ai-chiu who had not a passport stamped with the chief inspec- 
tor's seal, bestowed only after the closest scrutiny and persistent 
cross-questioning. On it was written the name and place of birth 
and residence of the holder, and after return from China or the 
fair it must be given up. The result of these stringent regulations 
was to drive the missionaries to find a path seaward. In Decem- 
ber, 1844, of seven converts from Seoul, attempting to get to the 
Border Gate, to meet Ferreol, only three were able to pass Ai- 
chiu. The other four, who had the wig, hair pins, and mourning 
costume of a widower for Ferreol, were unable to satisfy their ques- 
tioners, and so returned. At the Border Gate, Ferreol, after seeing 
the caravan pass, ordered Andrew Kim to enter alone, while he 
returned and sailed soon after to Macao. Andrew, with the aid of 
his three friends, who met him at a lonely spot at some distance 
from Ai-chiu, reached Seoul, January 8, 1845. 

As soon as resources and opportunity would permit, Andrew 
collected a crew of eleven fellow-believers, only four of whom had 
ever seen the sea, and none of whom knew their destination, and 
equipped with but a single compass, put to sea in a rude fishing - 
boat, April 24, 1845. Despite the storms and baffling winds, this un- 
couth mass of firewood, which the Chinese sailors jeeringly dubbed 
" the Shoe," reached Shanghae in June. Andrew Kim, never before 



t^66 COREA. 

at sea except as a passenger, had brought this uncalked, decklesa 
and unseaworthy scow across the entire breadth of the Yellow Sea. 

After the ordeal of the mandarin's questions/ and visits and 
kindly hospitality from the British naval officers and consul, he 
reached his French friends at the Roman Catholic mission. 

The beacon fires were now blazing on Quelpart, and from head- 
land to headland on the mainland, telegraphing the news of " foreign 
ships " to Seoul. From June 25th until the end of July, Cap- 
tain Edward Belcher,^ of the British ship Samarang, was engaged 
in surveying off Quelpart and the south coast. Even after the ship 
left for Nagasaki, the magistrates of the coast were ordered to 
maintain strict watch for all seafarers from strange countries. This 
made the return of Andrew Kim doubly dangerous. 

Bishop Ferreol came up from Macao to Shanghae, and on Sun- 
day, August 17th, Andrew Kim was ordained to the priesthood. 
On September 1st, with Ferreol and Marie Antoine Nicholas Dave- 
luy, another French priest, he set sail in *^the Shoe," now chris- 
tened the "Raphael," and turned toward the land of martyrdom. 
It was like Greatheart approaching Giant Despair's Castle. 

The voyage was safely, though tediously, made past Quelpart, 
and through the labyrinth of islands off Chulla. On October 12th, 
the Frenchmen, donning the garb of native noblemen in mourning, 
and baffling the sentinels, landed at night in an obscure place on 
the coast. Soon after this Daveluy was learning the language 
among some Christian villagers, who cultivated tobacco in a wild 
part of the country. The bishop went to Seoul as the safest place 
to hide and work in, while the farmer- sailors, after seven months' 
absence, returned to their hoes and their native fields. 

^ So fearless and generous a soul as Andrew Kim, who could yet follow the 
ethics and example of his teachers in repeatedly practising deception, and vio- 
lating his country's laws at Ai-chiu, scrupled not to lie to the mandarin at 
Shanghae, and tell him that he and his crew had been accidentally driven out 
to sea. As in the later case of the robbery of the regent's tomb, " the end 
justified the means. " 

2 The voyage of this officer, which added so much to science, resulted in 
making Quelpart and Beaufort Islands, Port Hamilton, and Mount Auckland as 
well known in geography as the names of Her Majesty's servants were known 
in British politics. The visitors were treated with courtesy, and even their sur- 
vey-marks, stakes, and whitewashed stones were carefully set up when washed 
away by the storm, or disturbed by cattle. The Coreans, however, drove their 
beeves well away from the Englishmen, who longed for fresh meat. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED. 

While the three priests were prosecuting their perilous labors, 
Thomas Tsoi, the Corean student from Macao with Maistre, a new 
missionary, were on their way through Manchuria to Hun-chun. 
Arriving after a seventeen days' march, they were seized by Man- 
chiu officers, reprimanded, and sent back to Mukden. 

Andrew Kim, by order of Bishop Ferreol, went to Whang-hai by 
water, to examine into the feasibihty of making that province a 
gateway of entrance. The sea was full of Chinese junks, the her- 
ring fishery being at its height. Watch-towers dotted the hills, and 
the beach was patrolled by soldiers to prevent communication with 
shore. Andrew, coming ostensibly to buy a cargo of fish, was en- 
abled to sail among the islands, to locate the rocks and sandspits, 
and to make a chart of the coast. Deeming the route practicable, 
he hailed a Chinese junk, and after conference, confided to the cap- 
tain the mail-bag of the mission, which contained also the charts 
and two maps of Corea. Unfortunately these documents were seized 
by the spies, and Andrew Kim, delayed while the cargo of fish was 
drying, was arrested on the suspicion of being a Chinaman. He was 
sent to Seoul, and while in prison heard of the French ships which 
were at that moment vainly trying to find the mouth of the Han 
River and the channel to the capital. Meanwhile, from his hiding- 
place, Ferreol wrote to Captain Cecile, who commanded the fleet of 
three war-vessels. 

The object of this visit was to hold a conference with the king's 
ministers, and demand satisfaction for the murder of Imbert 
Chastan and Maubant in 1839. After some coast surveys made, and 
the despatch of a threatening letter, the ships withdrew. Ferreol's 
note arrived too late, and Andrew Kim's fate was sealed. 

While in prison, Andrew was employed in coloring, copying, 
and translating two English maps of the world, one of which was 
for the king, and composing a summary of geography. In a letter 



368 COREA. 

in Latin to Ferreol, dated August 26th, he narrated his capture 
and trial. On September 16th, he was led out to trial. The 
sentence-flag bore the inscription : "Put to death for communicat- 
ing with the western barbarians," and the full programme of cruelty 
was carried out. Four women and four men were put to death in 
the persecution which followed. 

Maistre and Thomas Tsoi went to Macao and there found the 
French frigates La Gloire and La Victorieuse, ready to sail north 
for an answer to Captain Cecile's letter. Gladly welcomed by Cap- 
tain Pierre, they went aboard July 12th. On August 10th, while 
under sail in a group of islands off Chulla, in latitude 35° 45' and 
longitude 124° 8', in water which the English charts marked at 
twelve fathoms deep, both vessels grounded simultaneously. The 
high tides for which this coast is noted falling rapidly, both ves- 
sels became total wrecks. The largest of the La Gloire's boats was 
at once sent to Shanghae for assistance, and the six hundred men 
mai.le their camp at Kokun Island. I^ndly treated and furnished 
vnth. provisions as they were, the Frenchmen during their stay 
were rigidly secluded, and at night cordons of boats with lanterns 
guarded against all communication with the mainland. Thomas 
Tsoi acted as dumb interpreter, with pencil, in Chinese, and though 
hearing every word of the Corean magistrates was not recognized. 
Though meeting fellow Christians, he was unable to get inland, and 
Ferreol's messengers to the sea-shore arrived after an English 
ship from Shanghae had taken the crews away. 

The Corean government, fearing ' further visits of the outside 
barbarians, sent an answer to Admiral Cecile, directing it to Cap- 
tain Pierre at Macao, by way of Peking.'^ They explained why they 
treated Frenchmen shipwrecked kindly ; but sent Frenchmen dis- 
guised to execution.^ When Admiral Cecile reached Paris in 

' These were tlie first official relations of France with Corea ; or, as a native 
would say, between Tai-pep-kuk and Cho-sen ; the expression for France 
being Tai-pep, and for a Frenchman — curiously enough — Pepin. 

^ Inside the country, the frequent appearance of the foreign ships was the 
subject of everyday talk, and the news in this nation of gossips spread like a 
prairie fire, or a rolling avalanche. By the time the stories reached the north- 
ern provinces whole fleets of French ships lay off the coast. Their moral 
effect was something like that among the blacks in the Southern States during 
the civil war, when the "Lincoln gunboats" hove insight. The people jest- 
ingly called the foreign vessels " The authorities down the River." 

2 For changing their name and garments, sleeping by day, going abroad at 
night, associating with rebels, criminals and villains, and entering the king- 



THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED. 369 

1848, one of the periodical French revolutions had broken out in 
Paris, and a war at the ends of the earth was out of the question. 
The French government neglected to send a vessel to take away 
the effects saved from the wreck. The Coreans promptly put the 
canjion to use, and from them, as models, manufactured others for 
the forts built to resist " the Pepins " in 1866, and the Americans 
in 1871. 

Once more Maistre and Thomas Tsoi essayed to enter the 
guarded peninsula, by sailing early in 1848 in a Chinese jimk from 
Macao to Merin Island off Whang-hai, but no Christians met them. 
By way of Shanghae, they then went into Shing-king, and in De- 
cember to the Border Gate, meeting couriers from Bishop Ferreol. 
On a fiercely cold, windy, and dark night, which drove the soldiers 
indoors to the more congenial pleasure of the long pipe, cards, and 
cup on the oven-warmed floors, Thomas Tsoi got safely through 
Ai-chiu, and in a few days was in Seoul, and later in Chulla. The 
work of propagation now took a fresh start. A number of religious 
works composed or translated into the vulgar tongue were printed 
in pamphlet form from a native printing press, and widely circu- 
lated. In 1850, the Christians numbered eleven thousand, and five 
young men were studying for the priesthood. Kegular mails, sewn 
into the thick cotton coats of men in the embassy, were sent to and 
brought from China. A French whaler having grounded off the 
coast, the French consul at Shanghae, with two Enghshmen, came 
to reclaim the vessel's effects, and meeting three young men sent by 
the ever-alert Thomas Tsoi, took them back to Shanghae, the 
third remaining to meet his comrades on their return with fresh 
missionaries to come. After still another failure to enter Corea, 
Maistre set foot in Chulla-do, by way of Kokun Island, even while 
the fire-signals were blazing on the headlands on account of the 
presence of Eussian ships.* 

dom clandestinely, the missionaries were put to death ; and no comparison 
could he drawn to mitigate their sentence between them and innocent ship- 
wrecked men. 

' Other nations besides France now began to learn something of the twin 
hermits of the East, Ch5-sen and Nippon. During 1852, the Russian frigate 
Pallas sailed along the east coast up to the Tumen River, making no landing, 
but keeping at a distance of from two to five miles from the shore in order to 
avoid shoals and rocks. The object of the Pallas was to trace and map the 
shore line. In 1855, the French war-vessel Virginie continued the work 
begun by the Pallas, and at the end of her voyage the whole coast from Fu- 
san to the Tumen was known with some accuracy, and mapped out with Euro- 
24 



670 COREA. 

Ferreol, worn out with liis labors, after lying paralytic for many 
months, died February 3, 1853 ; but in March, 1854, Janson, mak- 
ing a second attempt, entered Corea, having crossed the Yellow 
Sea in a junk, which immediately took back three native students 
for Macao. Janson died in Seoul, of cerebral fever, June 18, 1854. 

In these years, 1853 and 1854, Commodore Perry and the 
American squadron were in the waters of the far East, driving 
the wedge of civilization into Japan, and sapping her walls of se- 
clusion. The American flag, however, was not yet seen in Corean 
waters, though the court of Seoul were kept informed of Perry's 
movements. 

A fresh reinforcement of missionaries to storm the citadel of 
paganism, Bishop Simeon, Francois Berneux, with two young 
priests, Michel Alexandre Petitnicholas and Charles Antoine 
Pourthie, set sail from Shanghae in a junk, and, after many adven- 
tures, arrived at Seoul via Whang-hai, while Feron (of later buc- 
caneering fame) followed on a Corean smuggling vessel, standing 
unexpectedly before his bishop in the capital, March 31, 1857. A 
synod of all the missionaries was now held, at which Berneux conse- 
crated Daveluy as his fellow bishop. Maistre died December 20th. 
The faith was now spread to Quelpart by a native of that island, who, 
having been shipwrecked on the coast of China, was carried by an 
English ship to Hong-Kong, where he met a Corean student from 
Macao and was converted. The Koman Catholic population of 
Corea in 1857 was reckoned at 16,500. 

Communication with the native Christians living near Nagasaki, 
and then under the harrow of persecution, took place. The cholera 
imported from Japan swept away over 400,000 victims in Corea. 
Thus does half the world not know how the other half lives. How 
many Americans ever heard of this stroke of pestilence in the her- 
mit nation ? 

In 1860, war with China broke out, the French and English 
forces took the Peiho forts, entered Peking, sacked the summer 
palace of the Son of Heaven, a few thousand European troops 
destroying the military prestige of the Chinese colossus. The 



pean names, at once numerous and prophetic. The coast line of Tartary or 
Manchuria — at that time a Chinese province — was also surveyed, mapped, and 
made ready for the Czar's use and that of his ambassador in 1860. 

Pallas and Virginie ! The names are suggestive of the maiden diplomatic 
victory of General Ignatieff, of whom more anon. 



THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED. 371 

Chinese emperor fled into Shing-king, toward Corea. The news 
produced a lively effect in Chosen, especially at court, ^ 

The utter loss of Chinese prestige struck terror into all hearts. 
For six centuries, China, the Tai-kuk (Great Empire), had been, in 
Corean eyes, the synonym and symbol of invincible power, and 
" the Son of Heaven, who commands ten thousand chariots," the 
one able to move all the earth. Copies of the treaty made between 
China and the allies, granting freedom of trade and religion, were 
soon read in Corea, causing intense alarm. 

But the after-clap of news, that turned the first storm of excite- 
ment into a tempest of rage and fear, was the treaty with Russia. 
General Ignatieff, the brilliant and vigorous diplomatist then but 
twenty-eight years old and fresh on the soil of Cathay, obtained, in 
1860, after the allied plenipotentiaries had gone home, the signature 
of Prince Kung to the cession of the whole Ussuri province. The 
tread of the Great Bear had been so steadily silent, that before 
either Great Britain or Cho-sen knew it, his foot had been planted 
ten degrees nearer the temperate zone. A rich and fertile region, 
well watered by the Amoor and Sungari Rivers, bordered by the 
Pacific, with a coast full of harbors, and comprising an area as large 
as France, was thus ceded to Russia. The Manchiu rulers of 
China had actually surrendered their ancestral homeland to the 
wily Muscovites. The boundaries of Siberia now touched the 
Tumen. The Russian bear jostled the Corean tiger. 

With France on the right, Russia on the left, China humbled, 
and Japan opened to the western world, what wonder that the 
rulers in Seoul trembled ? 

The results to Corean Christianity were that, in less than a de- 

^ A noble of high, rank presented to the council of ministers a memorial, 
setting forth the dangers that then menaced Ch5-sen, and urging that extraor- 
dinary means be put forth to meet the emergencies. He proposed that the 
national policy of armed neutrality should be preserved, that the conquered 
emperor of China should not enter Cho-sen, that the frontier should be 
strengthened against a possible invasion of the border-ruffians inhabiting the 
neutral strip. Taking advantage of the situation, these men, banding together 
with Chinese adventurers and Corean refugees, might make a descent in force 
into the kingdom. Finally, the supreme danger that filled all minds was the 
threatened invasion of the French. He recommended that the castle of Tong- 
nai, near Fusan, and the western strongholds of Nam-an, Pu-pion, and In-chiun 
(the port opened in 1882), should be strongly garrisoned and strengthened; and 
that a new citadel be built on the island of Kang-wa, to command the river and 
the entrance to the capital. (See map, page 190.) 



372 COREA. 

cade, thousands of natives had fled their country and were settled in 
the Kussian villages. 

At the capital all official business was suspended, and many 
families of rank fled to the moimtains. The nobles or officials 
who could not quit their posts sent off their wives and children. 
All this turned to the temporary advantage of the missionaries. 
In many instances, people of rank humbly sought the good favor 
and protection of the Christians. Medals, crosses, and books of 
religion were bought in quantities. Some even pubHcly wore 
them on their dress, hoping for safety when the dreaded invasion 
should come. The government now proceeded to raise war -funds, 
levying chiefly on the rich merchants, who were threatened with 
torture and death in case of refusal. A conscription of able-bodied 
men was ordered, and bombs, called "French pieces," and small- 
bore cannon were manufactured. In a foundry in the capital 
heavy guns were cast after the model of those left by the wreck of 
the La Gloire. The Kang-wa forts were built and garrisoned. In 
the midst of these war preparations, the missionary body was rein- 
forced by the arrival of four of their countrymen, who, by way of 
Merin Island, set foot on the soil of their martyrdom October, 
1861. Their names were Landre, Joanno, Ridel, and Calais. This 
year the number of Christians reached 18,000. 

Indirect attempts to insert the crowbars of diplomacy in the 
chinks of Corea's wall of seclusion were made about this time by 
France and England, and by Russia at another point. Japan was 
in each case the fulcrum. On account of the petty trade between 
Tsushima and Fusan, Earl Russell wished to have Great Britain 
included as a co-trader with the peninsula. The Russians the 
same year occupied a station on Tsu Island, commanding the coun- 
tries on either side ; but under protest from Yedo, backed by Brit- 
ish men-of-war, abandoned their purpose. In 1862, while the 
members of the Japanese embassy from the Tycoon were in Paris, 
the government of Napoleon HI. requested their influence in the 
opening of Corea to French trade and residence. At this time, 
however, the Japanese had their hands full of their own troubles 
at home, nor had the court at Seoul sent either envoys or presents 
since 1832. They should have done so in 1852, at the accession 
of the new sho-gun, but not rehshing the humiliation of coming 
only to Tsushima, and knowing the weakened state of their former 
conquerors, they were now ready to defy them. 

One new missionary and two returned native students entered 



THE WALLS 'of ISOLATION SAPPED. 373 

in March, 1863. The Ni dynasty, founded in 1392, came to an end 
on January 15, 1864, by the King Chul-chong, who had no child, 
dying before he had nominated an heir. This was the signal for 
fresh palace intrigues, and excitement among the nobles and 
political parties. The three widows of the kings who had reigned 
since 1831 were stUl living. The oldest of these, Queen Cho, 
at once seized the royal seal and emblems of authority, which 
high-handed move made her the mistress of the situation. Craftily 
putting aside her nephew Cho Sung, she nominated for the throne 
a lad then but twelve years old, and son of Ni Kung, one of the^^ 
royal princes. This latter person was supposed to be indifferent 
to politics, but no sooner was his son made the sovereign, than his^ 
slumbering ambition woke to lion-like vigor. This man, ta use a 
Corean phrase, had "a heart of stone, and bowels of iron." He^^ 
seemed to know no scruple, pity, or fear. Possessing himself of 
the seal and royal emblems, he was made Tai-wen Kun (Lord ol, 
the Great Court — a rare title given to a noble when, hds: son is 
made king) and became actual regent. This Corean, mayor of the 
palace held the reins of government during the next nine years, 
ruling with power like that of an absolute despot. He- was a rabid 
hater of Christianity, foreigners, and progress. 

In spite of the new current of hostility that set steadily in, the 
Christians began to be bold even to defiance. In Kiung-sang a fu- 
neral procession carrying two hundred lanternsj bore aloft a huge 
cross, and chanted responsive prayers. In the capital, the converts 
paraded the signs of the Romish cult.. A theological training 
school was established in the mountains^ four- new missionaries 
entered the kingdom through Nai-poj 1976 baptisms were made 
during the year, and, with much literary work accomplished, the 
printing-press was kept busy. 

The year 1866 is phenomenal iii Corean history. It seemed as 
if the governments and outlaws alike^ of many nations, had conspired 
to pierce or breach the walls of isolation at many points, Russians, 
Frenchmen, EngHshmen, Americans, Germans, authorized and un- 
authorized, landed to trade, rob, kill, or, what was equally ob- 
noxious to the regent and his court, to make treaties. 

In January the Russians, in a war-vessel, again appeared in 
Broughton's Bay, an,d demanded the right of trade. At the same 
time they stated that some Russian troops were to pass the frontier 
of Ham-kiung to enforce the demand. The usual stereotyped re- 
sponse was uaade, that Corea was. a vassal of China, and could not 



574 COREA. 

treat witli any other nation without permission of that Power, and 
that a special ambassador charged with the matter would be im- 
mediately despatched to Peking, etc. 

The advent of the double-headed eagle was the signal foi 
lively feeling and action among the Christians at Seoul. The long- 
cherished project of appealing to England and France to make an 
alliance to secure liberty of religion was revived. The impulsive 
converts now forwarded the scheme, under the plea of patriotic 
defense against the Eussians, with all the innocent maladdress 
which characterizes men who are adults in age but children in 
politics. In their exhilaration they already dreamed of building a 
cathedral in Seoul of imposing proportions, and finished in a style 
worthy alike of their religion and their country. Three Christian 
nobles, headed by Thomas Kim, composed a letter embodying 
their ideas of an anti-Russian Franco English alliance, and had it 
presented to the regent, who blandly sent Thomas Kim to invite 
the bishops, then absent to a conference in the capital. On his 
return to Seoul, Kim was coldly received, and no further notice 
was taken of him. The anti-Christian party, now in full power at 
Court, clamored for the enforcement of the old edict against the for- 
eign religion, while a letter from one of the Corean embassy in 
Peking, arriving late in January, added fuel to the rising flame. It 
stated that the Chinese were putting to death all the Christians 
found in the empire. That lie, "as light as a feather" in its telling, 
was " as hea\y as a mountain " in Corea. Such an illustrious example 
must be followed. Vainly the regent warned the court of the danger 
from Europe. The Russian ship, too, had disappeared, and the 
French seemed afraid to take vengeance for the massacre of 1839. 
The ciy of "Death to all the Christians, death to the western 
barbarians " now began to be heard. Forced by the party in power, 
the regent signed the death-warrants of the bishops and priests, 
promulgated anew the old laws of the realm against the Christians, 
and proceeded "to make very free with the heads of his subjects." 
The minions of the magistrates sallied forth like bloodhounds un- 
leashed. Berneux was seized on February 23d, and brought to 
trial successively before three tribunals, the last being the highest 
of the realm. 

In his interview with the regent, who had formed a high idea 
of the Frenchman, Berneux failed to address his Highness in the 
punctilious form of words demanded by court etiquette. Forth- 
with the official made up his mind that the Frenchman was a man 



THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED. 375 

of slight attainments, and of no personal importance — so sensitive 
IS the Corean mind in the matter of etiquette. From the highest 
class prison, the bishop, after undergoing horrible tortures with 
club, paddle, and pointed sticks thrust into his flesh, was cast 
into a common dungeon, where, in a few days, he was joined by 
three of his fellow missionaries with several converts, faithful to 
their teachers even in the hour of death. 

All suffered the fierce and savage beatings, and on March 8th 
were led out to death. An immense crowd of jeering, laughing, 
curious people followed the prisoners, who were tied by their hair 
to the chair so as to force them to hold up their faces, that the 
crowd might see them. Four hundred soldiers marched out with 
the doomed men to the sandy plain near the river. The lengthened 
programme of brutal torture and insult was duly carried out, after 
which the four heads were presented for inspection. 

One day afterward, two other French missionaries and their 
twelve students for the priesthood were led captives into Seoul, 
marked with the red cord and yellow caps betokening prisoners soon 
to die. With like tortures, and the same shameful details of execu- 
tion, they suffered death on March 11th. On this day, also, Daveluy 
and two other priests were seized, and on March 30th, Good Friday, 
decapitated, together with two faithful natives. In the case of Dave- 
luy, the barbarity of the proceeding was increased by the sordid ex- 
ecutioner, who, after delivering one blow, and .while the blood was 
spouting out from the wound, left the victim to bargain with the 
official for the sum due him for his work of blood. 

In a little over a month all missionary operations had come to a 
standstill. Scores of natives had been put to death ; hundreds 
more were in prison. Ridel, while hiding between two walls, wrote 
to Peking, describing the state of affairs. Feron and Eidel met on 
May 8th, travelling all night, and on June 15th they found that 
Calais was still alive. Hearing that a foreign steam-vessel was 
cruising off the Nai-po, Ridel sent a letter begging for help. This 
ship was the Rona, Captain Morrison, belonging to a British firm in 
China, on its way back from Niu-chwang, under the direction of 
Mr. Ernest Oppert. The native Christians were unable to get on 
board the Rona ; but when the same Oppert visited Haimi in the 
Nai-po, some months later, in the steamer Emperor, this letter 
was put in his hands. Meanwhile Ridel had reached the sea-coast, 
and in spite of the vigilant patrols, put off in a boat constructed 
without an ounce of iron, and manned by a crew of eleven Christian 



376 COREA. 

fishermen. He reached Chifu July 7th. Going at once to Tien-tsin^ 
he informed the French Admiral Roze of the recent events in Corea, 
and then returning to Chifu, waited till mid-August. Feron and 
Calais, hearing of the presence of French ships in the Han Eiver, 
reached the coast, after great straits, to find them gone. They put 
to sea, however, and got upon a Chinese smuggler, by which they 
reached Chifu, October 26th — while the French expedition was in 
Corea. Not one foreign priest now remained in the peninsula, and 
no Christian dared openly confess his faith, while thousands were 
banished, imprisoned, or put to death. 

Thus after twenty years of nearly uninterrupted labors, the 
church was again stripped of her pastors, and at the end of the 
eighty-two years of Corean Christianity, the curtain fell in blood. 
Of four bishops and nineteen priests, all except four were from 
France, dnd of these only three remained alive. Fourteen were 
martyrs, and four fell victims to the toils and dangers of their no- 
ble calling. 

In the foregoing story of papal Christianity in Cho-sen, which 
we have drawn from Dallet — a Roman Catholic writer — we have 
the spectacle of a brave band of men, mostly secular priests edu- 
cated in French seminaries of learning, doing what they believed 
it was right to do. Setting the laws of this pagan country at 
defiance, they, by means of dissimulation and falsehood, entered 
the country in disguise as nobles in mourning. Fully believing in 
the dogma of salvation by works, they were sublimely diligent in 
carrying on their labors of conversion, ever in readiness for that 
crown of martyrdom which each one coveted, and which so 
many obtained ; but the nobleness of their calling was disfigured 
by the foul and abominable teaching that evil should be done in 
order that good might come — a tenet that insults at once the New 
Testament and the best casuistry of the Roman Catholic Church. 
According to the code of any nation, their converts were traitors 
in inviting invasion ; but if worthy to be set down as Arnolds and 
Iscariots, then their teachers have the greater blame in leading 
them astray. It is to be hoped that the future Christian mission- 
aries in Corea, whether of the Greek, Roman, or Reformed branch, 
win teach Christianity with more of the moral purity inculcated 
by its Founder. 



CHAPTER XLHI. 

THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 

The preliminaries of the French expedition to Corea in 1866 
may be gathered from the letters which passed between the French 
charge d'affairs at Peking and Prince Kung, the Chinese premier, 
as published in the United States Diplomatic Correspondence, 
1867-68.' The pyrotechnic bombast of the Frenchman may be 
best understood by remembering that he lived in the palmy days 
of Louis Napoleon and the third empire. His violent language 
and behavior may be contrasted with the calm demeanor and firm 
temper of the astute Chinaman, the greatest of the diplomats of 
the Middle Kingdom. 

"Unfortunately for the interests of his country, M. H. Bellonet 
had carried into diplomacy the rude customs and unmeasured 
language of the African Zouaves, in whose ranks he had served at 
one period of his career." 

1 July 13, 1866. 
M. DE Bellonet to Prince Kung. 

Sir : I grieve to bring officially to the knowledge of your Imperial Highness 
a horrible outrage committed in the small kingdom of Corea, which formerly 
assumed the bonds of vassalage to the Chinese empire, but which this act of 
savage barbarity has forever separated from it. 

In the course of the month of March last, the two French bishops who 
were evangelizing Corea, and with them nine missionaries and seven Corean 
priests, and a great multitude of Christians of both sexes and of every age, 
were massacred by order of the sovereign of that country. 

The government of His Majesty cannot permit so bloody an outrage to be 
unpunished. The same day on which the king of Corea laid his hands upon 
my unhappy countrymen was the last of his reign ; he himself proclaimed its 
end, which I, in turn, solemnly declare to-day. In a few days our military 
forces are to march to the conquest of Corea, and the Emperor, my august 
Sovereign, alone has now the right and the power to dispose, according to 
his good pleasure, of the country and the vacant throne. 

The Chinese government has declared to me many times that it has no 
authority over Corea, and it refused on this pretext to apply the treaties of 



378 CORBA. 

The best commentary upon this boast of an irate -iinclerling, 
dressed in the brief authority of his superior, will be found in the 
events of the expedition, notably in the reduction to ashes of the 
city of Kang-wa, which rendered 10,000 people homeless, and 
in the repulse of the reckless invaders even before Bellonet at 
Peking was settling the fate of the king. 

With Bishop Ridel as interpreter, and three of his converts as 
pilots, three vessels were sent to explore the Han River. Equipped 
with charts made by Captain James of the Emperor, who had ex- 
amined the western entrance one month before, the despatch-boat 
Deroulede leaving her consorts in Prince Jerome Gulf, steamed up 
the river on September 21st, as far as the narrows between Kang- 
wa and the mainland. The French officers were charmed with the 
beauty of the autumnal scenery. On the cultivated plain, check- 
ered into a thousand squares of tiny rice-fields, all well irrigated, 

Tien-tsin to that country, and give to our missionaries the passports which we 
have asked from it. We have taken note of these declarations, and we de- 
clare now that we do not recognize any authority whatever of the Chinese 
government over the kingdom of Corea. 

I have, etc., 

H. DE Bellonet. 
His Imperial Highness, Prince Kung. 

Spurning with irritating, not to say insulting, language, the suggestion of 
Prince Kung that Bellonet might do well to inquire into the causes and merits, 
of the execution of the missionaries, the representative of France, November 
11th, again addressed the Chinese statesman. In this missive occurs the follow- 
ing: "As for the fate of the former king of Corea, it is now subject to the 
decision of the Emperor, my august Sovereign. " 

Monsieur Bellonet's method is one specimen of the manner in which the 
envoys of European nations are accustomed to bully the governments 
of Asiatic countries. In a long communication to Prince Kung, dated 
November 11, 1866, Mr. Bellonet charges upon the Chinese government : 
1st. Complicity with Corea. 2d. That the Corean embassy, during the 
previous winter, had stated the project of the massacre, and had received the 
tacit official authorization of the Chinese government. 3d. The direct approval 
of several high members of it. 4th. That the recruiting and mobilization 
of Mauchiu troops, beyond the Great Wall, was for the purpose of assisting 
Corea against the French. He writes, in addition to the above, an amazing 
amount of nonsense, which shows of what magnifying powers the human 
eye is capable when enlarged by suspicion. 

Among other tidbits of rodomontade, is this one— which is a truthful 
picture of the France of Napoleon III. — "War for us is a pleasure which the 
French passionately seek ; " and this — "The people of Corea address us as de* 
liverers, ... we shall inaugurate the reign of order, justice, and pros- 
perity." 



THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 



379 



the golden-tinted grain, now full ripe, awaited the sickle and the 
sheaf-binder. Numerous villages dotted the landscape, and to the 
northwest rose the green hills on which sat, like a queen, the citj 
of Kang-wa. A number of forts, as yet unmounted with cannon, 
were already built. Others, in process of construction, were rising 
on well-chosen sites commanding the river. No garrison or a 
single soldier was as yet seen. The simple villagers, at first fright- 



oct.i-6>;^^^ 

■^ TrencTi 
Camp 




Map of French Naval and Military Operations, 1866. 



ened at the sight of a mighty black ship, moving up the river 
against a strong current without sails or oars, collected in crowds 
along the banks to see this fire-pulsing monster from the western 
ocean. 

On the 23d the Deroulede and Tardif, leaving the Primauguet 
at Boisee (Woody) Island, moved up the Han River to the capital, 
the Corean pilots at the bow, and Ridel with the men at the wheel. 



380 COREA. 

One or two forts fired on tlie vessels as they steamed along, and in 
one place a fleet of junks gathered to dispute their passage. A 
well-aimed shot sunk two of the crazy craft, and a bombshell 
dropped among the artillerists in the redoubt silenced it at once. 
The rocks were safely avoided, and on the evening of the 25th, the 
two ships cast anchor, and the flag of France floated in front of the 
Corean capital. The hills environing the city and every point of 
view were white with gazing thousands, who for the first time saw 
a vessel moving under steam. 

The ships remaned abreast of the city several days, the officers 
taking soundings and measurements, computing heights and mak- 
ing plans. M. Ridel went on shore in hopes of finding a Christian 
and hearing some news, but none dared to approach him. 

While the French remained in the river, not a bag of rice nor a 
fagot of wood entered Seoul. Eight days of such terror, and a 
famine would have raged in the city. Seven thousand houses 
were deserted by their occupants. 

Returning to Boisee Island, having surveyed the river, two con- 
verts came on board. They informed Ridel of the burning of a 
" European " ship [the General Sherman] at Ping-an, the renewal 
of the persecution, and the order that Christians should be put to 
death without waiting for instructions from Seoul. Ridel in vain 
urged Admiral Roze to remain with his fleet, in order to intimidate 
the government. Sailing away, the ships arrived at Chifu, Octo- 
ber 3d. 

Tai-wen kun, now thoroughly alarmed, began to stir up the coun- 
try to defense. The military forces in every province were called 
out. Every scrap of iron was collected, and the forges and black- 
smith shops were busy day and night in making arms of every 
known kind ; even the farmer's tools were altered into pikes and 
sabres. Loaded junks were sunk in the channel of the Han to ob- 
struct it. Through the Japanese at Fusan, and the daimio of 
Tsushima, word was sent to the Tycoon of Japan, informing him of 
his straits, and begging for assistance. The Yedo government, 
being at that time in great straits between the pressure of foreign- 
ers on one hand, and of the " mikado-reverencers " on th6 other, 
could not then, had it been right to do so, afford any military as- 
sistance against the French, with whom a treaty had been made. 
Instead of this, two commissioners were appointed to go to Seoul, 
and recommend that Cho-sen open her ports to foreign com- 
merce, as Japan had done, and thus choose peace instead of war 



THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 381 

with foreigners. Before the envoys could leave Japan, the Tycoon 
had died, and the next year Japan was in the throes of civil war, 
the sho-giinate was abohshed, and Corea was for the time utterly 
forgotten. 

The object of the French expedition and the blockade of the 
Salee (Han) Eiver were duly announced from the French legation 
in China to the Chinese and foreign representatives in Peking. 
Without waiting to hear from his government at home, Bellonet 
despatched the fleet and made war on his own responsibility. The 
squadron which sailed October 11th, to distribute thrones and de- 
capitate prime ministers, consisted of the frigate Guerri^re, the 
corvettes Laplace and Primauguet, the despatch-vessels Deroul^de 
and Kien-chan, and the gunboats Tardif and Lebrethon, with 600 
soldiers, including a detachment of 400 marines from the camp at 
Yokohama. 

One would have thought 600 men rather too small a force to 
root up thrones with, seeing that the days of Cortez and Pizarro 
were past. The Coreans were not like the Mexicans, who thought 
a horse and his rider were one animal. They had smelt powder 
and fought tigers. 

On October 13th the admiral cast anchor off Boisee Island. 
The next day the gunboats steamed up the river, landing the ma- 
rines in camp, a little over half a mile from the city. On the 15th, 
before any attempt was made to communicate with the government, 
a reconnoissance was made in force, toward Kang-hoa (Kang-wa), 
during which a small fort, mounting two guns, was captured. 

Kang-wa was, to a modern eye, probably one of the best fortified 
cities in the kingdom. It was surrounded by a crenelated wall, 
nearly fifteen feet high ! Behind this defense the native soldiery 
stood ready with flails, arrows, matchlocks, and jingals. 

The royal residence, for pleasure in summer, and refuge in war- 
time, was beautifully situated on a wooded hill, from which a glori- 
ous view of the island, sea, and mainland was visible. The 
fertile island itself lay like a green emerald upon a greener sea. 
Crops of rice, barley, tobacco, sorghum, maize, various root foods, 
Chinese cabbage, chestnuts, persimmons, with here and there a great 
camellia tree just entering into bloom, greeted the view of the in- 
vaders. Kang-wa was well named " The Flower of the River." 

At eight o'clock on the morning of October 16th an attack was 
made in force on the main gate. At the distance of one hundred 
yards, the infantry charged on a run, to the cry of " Vive I'Empe- 



382 COREA. 

reur." The hot fire of the jingals checked them not a moment. 
Reaching the wall, they set up the scaling ladders, and in a few mo- 
ments hundreds of Frenchmen were inside, shooting down the fly- 
ing white-coats, or engaging in a hand to hand encounter, though 
only a few natives were killed. The gate was soon crushed 
in with axes, and the main body entered easily. Firing was soon 
over, and the deserted city was in the victors hands. About eighty 
bronze and iron cannon, mostly of very small calibre, over six thou- 
sand matchlocks, and the official archives of the city were found and 
made trophies of. 

Kang-wa was the military headquarters for western Corea and 
the chief place of gunpowder manufacture. Large magazines of 
food supplies had been collected in it. Eighteen boxes of silver, 
containing ingots to the value of nearly thirty eight thousand dol- 
lars, and a great many books and manuscripts were found, besides 
spoil of many kinds from the shops and houses. Immense stores 
of bows and arrows, iron sabres without scabbards, helmets, and 




Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture. 

breastplates, beautifully wrought, but very heavy and clumsy, were 
found. 

The cannon had no carriages, but were fastened to logs or fixed 
platforms. They were breech-loaders, in that the powder, fixed in 
an iron cartridge, was introduced at the breech, while the ball seemed 
to be put in simultaneously at the muzzle. These double-ended 
cannon reminded one of a tortoise. A curious or rather comical 
thing about these cannon was that many of them had several touch- 
holes in a row, the cannonier firing them by applying his match 
rapidly along the line of vents — an " accelerating gun," of a rude 
kind. The Corean gunpowder is said to burn so slowly that a 
charge has to be lighted at both ends— a type of the national pol- 
icy. 

As the Coreans were fortifying Tong-chin with unusual care, 
the admiral sent out, October 26th, a reconnoitering party of one 
hundred and twenty men, who were landed on the mainland, op- 
posite Kang-wa Island, whence the high road runs direct to the 



THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 383 

capital. Here was a village, with fortifications clustered around a 
great gate, having a pointed stone arch surmounted by the figure of 
a tortoise and a pagoda. To force this gate was to win the way to 
the capital. 

As the marines were disembarking, the Coreans poured in a 
heavy fire, which killed two and wounded twenty-five Frenchmen. 
Nevertheless the place was stormed and seized, but as the Corean 
forces were gathering in the vicinity, the marines returned to the 
ships to await reinforcements. 

Toward evening a party of Coreans defiled at the foot of the plain 
in gallant array, evidently elated with supposed victory. Suddenly, 
as they came within range, the French ships opened on them with 
sheU, which exploded among them. 

Terrified at such unknown war missiles, they broke and fled to 
the hill-tops, where, to their surprise, they were again enveloped in a 
shower of iron. Finally they had to take shelter in the distant 
ravines and the far plains, which at night were illumined by their 
bivouac fires. 

Weak men and nations, in fighting against stronger enemies, 
must, like the weaker ones in the brute creation, resort to cunning. 
They try to weary out what they cannot overcome. The Coreans, 
even before rifled cannon and steamers, began to play the same old 
tricks practised in the war with the Japanese in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. They made hundreds of literal " men of straw," and stuck 
them within range of the enemy's artillery, that the Frenchmen 
might vainly expend their powder and iron. The keen-eyed 
Frenchmen, aided by their glasses, detected the cheat, and wasted 
no shot on the mannikins. 

Meanwhile the invaded nation was roused to a white heat of 
wrath. The furnace of persecution and the forges of the armorers 
were alike heated to their utmost. Earnest hands plied with rival- 
ling diligence the torture and the sledge. In the capital it was 
written on the gate-posts of the palace that whoever should propose 
peace with the French should be treated as a traitor and im- 
mediately executed. 

On October 19th, Ni, the Corean general commanding, had sent 
the French admiral a long letter stuffed with quotations from the 
Chinese classics, the gist of which was that whoever from outside 
broke through the frontiers of another kingdom was worthy of 
death — a sentiment weU worthy of a state of savagery. 

The French admiral, with equal national bombast, but in direct 



384 CORBA. 

and clearest phrase, demanded the surrender of the three high 
ministers of the court, else he would hold the Corean government 
responsible for the miseries of the war. 

The Coreans in camp were ceaselessly busy in drilling raw 
troops and improving their marksmanship. Soldiers arrived from 
all quarters, and among them was a regiment of eight hundred 
tiger-hunters from the north, every man of whom was a dead shot 
either with bow or matchlock. These men, who had faced the tiger 
and many of whom had felt his claws, were not likely to fear even 
French "devils." They garrisoned a fortified monastery on the 
island which was situated in a valley in the centre of a circle of 
hills which were crowned by a wall of uncemented masonry. It 
could be approached only by one small foot-path in a deep ravine. 
The entrance was a gateway of heavy hewn stone, arched in a full 
semicircle, the gate being in one piece. The walls were mounted 
with home-made artillery. 

On the same day on which this information reached the admiral, 
the natives attacked a French survey boat, whereupon he at once 
resolved to capture the monastery. For this purpose he detached 
160 men, without artillery, who left at six o'clock in the morning of 
October 27th, with their luncheon packed on horses. The invaders, 
with their heads turned by too many easy victories, went in something 
like picnic order, frequently stopping to rest and enjoy the autumnal 
scenery. On several occasions they saw squads of men marching 
over the hills toward the same destination, but this did not hurry 
the Frenchmen, though a native informed them that the monastery, 
ordinarily inhabited only by a dozen priests, was now garrisoned 
and full of soldiers. 

At 11.30 they arrived near the fortress, when some one proposed 
lunch. Others jauntily declared it would be very easy to capture 
" the pagoda," and then dine in the hall of Buddha himself ; this 
advice was not, however, followed. Having arranged three parties, 
they advanced to within three hundred yards of the gate. All 
within was as silent as death. Suddenly a sheet of flame burst 
from the whole length of the wall, though not a black head nor a 
white coat was visible. In a minute the French columns were 
shattered and broken, and not a man was on his feet. The soldiers, 
retreating in a hail of lead, found refuge behind rocks, sheaves of 
rice, piles of straw, and in the huts near by. There the officers 
rallied their men lest the garrison should make a sally. The 
wounded were then borne to the rear. They numbered thirty- 



THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 385 

two. Only eighty fighting men were left, and these soon became 
conscious of being weak and very hungry, for they had been cruelly 
tantalized by seeing the lunch-horse kick up his heels at the first 
fire, and trot over to the Coreans. They learned that one of the 
slips 'twixt the cup and the lip might be caused by a horse in Cho- 
sen. Perhaps some native poet improvised a poem contrasting 
the patriotic nag with the steed of Kanko, which led a hungry 
army home. 

It being madness or annihilation for eighty Frenchmen to at- 
tempt to storm a stone fortress, garrisoned by five or ten times 
their number of enemies, and guarded with artillery, retreat was 
resolved on. The wounded were hastily cared for and the mourn- 
ful march began. The stronger men carried their severely injured 
comrades on their shoulders with brotherly kindness. The un- 
wounded who were free formed the rear-guard. Three times the 
little band had to face about and fire with effect at the Coreans, 
who thrice charged their foes with heavy loss to themselves. They 
then mounted the hills, and with savage yells celebrated their vic- 
tory over the western barbarians. It was not till night, hungry 
and tired, that reinforcements were met a half league from camp. 
They had been sent out by the admiral, to whom had come presenti- 
ment of failure. 

There was gloom in the camp that night and at headquarters. 
The near sky and the horizon, notched by the hills, seemed to glare 
with unusual luridness, betokening the joy and the deadly purpose 
of the invaded people. 

The next morning, to the surprise of all, and the anger of 
many, orders were given to embark. The work on the fortifica- 
tions begun around the camp was left off. The troops in Kang-wa 
set fire to the city, which, in a few hours, was a level heap of ashes. 
The departure of the invaders was so precipitate that the patriots 
to this day gloat over it as a disgraceful retreat. 

A huge bronze bell, from one of the temples in Kang-wa, which 
had been transported half way to the camp, was abandoned. The 
Coreans recaptured this, regarding it as a special trophy of victory. 
The French embarked at night, and at six o'clock next morning 
dropped down to the anchorage at Boisee Island. On the way, 
every fort on the island seemed to be manned and popping away at 
the ships, but hurting only the paint and rigging. To their great 
disgust, the men repulsed two days before, discovered the walls of 
the monastery from deck, and that the distance was only a mile and 
25 



386 COREA. 

a half from the river side. There was considerable silent swearing 
among the officers, who believed it could be easily stormed and 
taken even then. Orders must be obeyed, however, and in rage 
and shame they silently gazed on the grim walls. The return of 
the expedition was a great surprise to the fleet at Boisee Island. 
On his return to China, the admiral found, to his mortification, that 
his government did not approve of the headlong venture of Bel- 
lonet. ^ 

In the palace at Seoul, the resolve was made to externiinate Chris- 
tianity, root and branch. Women and even children were ordered 
to the death. Several Christian nobles were executed. One Christian, 
who was betrayed in the capital by his pagan brother, and another 
unknown fellow-believer were taken to the river side in front of 
the city, near the place where the two French vessels had anchored. 
At this historic spot, by an innovation unknown in the customs of 
Cho-sen, they were decapitated, and their headless trunks held 
neck downward to spout out the hot life-blood, that it might wash 
away the stain of foreign pollution. "It is for the sake of these 
Christians," said the official proclamation, " that the barbarians 
have come just here. It is on account of these only that the waters 
of our river have been defiled by western ships. It behooves that 
their blood should wash out the stain." Upon the mind of the 
regent and court at Seoul, the effect was to swell their pride to the 
folly of extravagant conceit. Feeling themselves able almost to 
defy the world, they began soon after to hurl their defiance at 
Japan. The dwarf of yesterday had become a giant in a day. 

^ The results of this expedition were disastrous all over the East. Happen- 
ing at a time when relations between foreigners and Chinese were strained, the 
unexpected return of the fleet filled the minds of Europeans in China with 
alarm. It was the unanimous verdict of press and people that the return of 
the French in sufficient force to Corea in the spring was a measure of absolute 
safety to foreigners in the far East. If not, since both British and American 
citizens were among the crew of the General Sherman, murdered at Ping-an, 
the fleets of Great Britain and the United States should proceed to Seoul. This, 
however, was not done ; the English let well enough alone, the French soon 
had their hands full in attending to the Germans at home, and the Americans 
went later only to follow Admiral Koze's example. Meanwhile the smothered 
embers of hostility to foreign influence steadily gathered vigor, as the report 
spread like a gale through China that the hated Frenchmen had been driven 
away by the Coreans. The fires at length broke out in the Tien-tsin massacre, 
June 31, 1870. "It is believed by many thoughtful observers in China that 
this frightful event gained its first serious impetus from the unfortunate issu« 
of Admiral Roze's campaign in Corea. " 



THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 387 

In spite of foreign invaders and war's alarms, one peaceful event 
during this same year, and shortly after the French fleet had gone 
away, sent a ripple of pleasure over the surface of Corean society. 
The young king, now but fourteen years old, who had been duly 
betrothed to Min,' a daughter of one of the noble families, was 
duly married. Popular report credits the young queen with abili- 
ties not inferior to those of her royal husband. 

According to custom, the Chinese emperor sent an ambassador, 
one Koei-ling, a mandarin of high rank, to bear the imperial con- 
gratulations and investiture of the queen. This merry Chinaman, 
cultivated, lively, poetic in mood, and susceptible to nature's 
beauties, wrote an account of his journey between the two capitals. 
His charming impressions of travel give us glimpses of peaceful 
life in the land of Morning Calm, and afford a delightful contrast 
to the grim visage of war, with which events in Corea during the 
last decade have unhappily made us too familiar. 

' The Min or Ming family is largely Chinese in blood and origin, and, be- 
sides being pre-eminent among all the Corean nobility in social, political, and 
intellectual power, has been most strenuous in adherence to Chinese ideas and 
traditions, with the purpose of keeping Corea unswerving in her vassalage 
and loyalty to China. Their retainers constitute a large portion of the popula- 
tion of Seoul. Besides the queen, the king on his mother's side, the wife of 
the heir apparent, and several of the highest officers of the government belong 
to the house of Min. For centuries this family has practically governed the 
kingdom. Their social and personal influence in Peking has always been very 
great, while at home their relations to the treasury and the army have been 
very close. The plot of 1883 was in effect an ineffectual attempt to destroy 
their power. When China commanded, they approved of the treaty with the 
United States. 



CHAPTER XLiy. 

AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA. 

America became a commercial rival to Cho-sen as early as 1757, 
when the products of Connecticut and Massachusetts lay side by 
side with Corean imports in the markets of Peking and Canton. Gin- 
seng, the most precious drug in the Chinese pharmacopceia, had been 
for ages brought from Manchuria and the neighboring peninsula, 
where, on the mountains, the oldest and richest roots are found. 

The Dutch traders, at once noticing the insatiable demand for 
the famed remedy, sought all over the world for a supply. The 
sweetish and mucilaginous root, though considered worthless by 
Europeans, was then occasionally bringing its weight in gold, and 
usually seven times its weight in silver, at Peking, and the merchants 
in the annual embassy from Seoul were reaping a rich harvest. 
Besides selling the younger and less valuable crop in its natural 
condition, they had factories in which the two-legged roots — which 
to the Asiatic imagination suggested the figure of the human body 
they were meant to refresh— were so manipulated as to take on 
the appearance of age, thus enhancing their price in the market. 

Suddenly the Corean market was broken. Stimulated by the 
Dutch merchants at Albany, the Indians of Massachusetts had 
found the fleshy root growing abundantly on the hills around 
Stockbridge in Massachusetts. Taking it to Albany, they exchanged 
it for hardware, trinkets, and rum. While the Dutch domines 
were scandalized at the drunken revels of the "Yankee" Indians, 
who equalled the Mohawks in their inebriation, good Jonathan 
Edwards at Stockbridge was grieving over the waywardness of his 
dusky flock, because they had gone wild over ginseng-hunting. 

The Hollanders, shippiDg the bundled roots on their gaUiots 
down the Hudson, and thence to Amsterdam and London, sold them 
to the British East India Company at a profit of five hundred per 
cent. Landed at Canton, and thence carried to Peking, American 
ginseng broke the market, forced the price to a shockingly low 
figure, and dealt a heavy blow to the Corean monopoly. 



AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH CORBA. 389 

Henceforth a steady stream of ginseng — now found in limitless 
quantities in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys — poured into China. 
Though far inferior to the best article, it {Aralia qumquefolia) is 
sufficiently like it in taste and real or imaginary qualities to rival 
the root of Cho-sen, which is not of the very highest grade. 

Less than a generation had passed from the time that the west- 
ern end of Massachusetts had any influence on Corea or China, be- 
fore there was brought from the far East an herb that influenced the 
colony ,at her other end, far otherwise than commercially. Mas- 
sachusetts had sent ginseng to Canton, China now sent tea to 
Massachusetts. The herb from Amoy was pitched into the sea by 
men dressed and painted like the Indians, and the Revolution fol- 
lowed. 

The war for independence over, Captain John Greene, in the 
ship Empress of China, sailed from New York, February 22, 1784. 
Major Samuel Shaw, the supercargo, without government aid or 
recognition, established American trade with China, living at Can- 
ton during part of the year 1786 and the whole of 1787 and 1788. 
Having been appointed consul by President Washington in 1789, 
while on a visit home, Major Shaw returned to China in an en- 
tirely new ship, the Massachusetts, built, navigated, and owned by 
American citizens. At Canton he held the office of consul certainly 
until the year 1790, and presumably until his death in 1794. This 
first consul of the United States in China received his commission 
from Congress, on condition that he should "not be entitled to 
receive any salary, fees, or emoluments whatever." 

Animated by the spirit of independence, and a laudable ambi- 
tion, the resolute citizen of the New World declared that " the 
Americans must have tea, and they seek the most lucrative market 
for their precious root ginseng." ^ 

It was ginseng and tea — an exchange of the materials for drink, 
a barter of tonics — that brought the Americans and Chinese, and 
finally the Americans and Coreans together. 

' The Honorable Gideon Nye, of China, from whose article in " The Far 
East " these facts are drawn concerning the first consul of the United 
States to China, has effectually disproved the oft-quoted statement of Sir John 
Davis in his " History of China," that " It was in the year 1802 that the 
American flag was fimt hoisted at Canton. " Dr. William Speer in his excellent 
book — fair to the Chinese as well as to foreigners — has told the story of 
Jonathan Edwards and his troubles over ginseng and the drink which his In- 
dian pupils bought with it. 



390 COREA. 

Cotton was the next American raw material exported to China^ 
beginning in 1791. In 1842 the loaded ships sailed direct from 
Alabama to Canton, on the expansion of trade after the Opium War. 

The idea now began to dawn upon some minds that it was high 
time that Japan and Corea should be opened to American com 
merce. 

The first public man who gave this idea official expression was 
the Honorable Zadoc Pratt, then member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives from the Eleventh (now the Fifteenth) Congressional 
District of New York. As chairman of the Committee on Naval 
Affairs, he introduced in Congress, February 12, 1845, a proposi- 
tion for the extension of American commerce by the despatch of a 
mission to Japan and Corea as follows : 

^' It is hereby recommended that immediate measures be taken 
for effecting commercial arrangements with the empire of Japan 
and the kingdom of Corea," etc. (Congressional Globe, vol. xiv., p. 
294). 

The Mexican war was then already looming as a near possibility, 
and under its shadow, the wisdom of sending even a part of our 
little navy was doubted, and Mr. Pratt's bill failed to pass. 

None of the American commanders, Glyn, Biddle, John Eodgers, 
or even Perry, seem to have ventured into Corean waters, and 
Commodore Perry has scarcely mentioned the adjacent kingdom in 
the narrative of the treaty expedition which he wrote, and his 
pastor, the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, edited. In truth, the sealed 
country was at that time almost as little known as that of Corea or 
Coreae, which Josephus mentions, or that province of India which 
bears the same name. 

The commerce which sprang up, not only between our country 
and China and Japan, but also that carried on in American vessels be- 
tween Shanghae, Chifu, Tien-tsin, and Niu-chwang in North China, 
and the Japanese ports, made the navigation of Corean waters a 
necessity. Sooner or later shipwrecks must occur, and the ques- 
tion of the humane treatment of American citizens cast on Corean 
shores came up before our government for settlement, as it had 
long before in the case of Japan. 

When it did begin to rain it poured. Within one year the 
Corean government having three American cases to deal with, gave 
a startling illustration of its policy — with the distressed, kindness ; 
with the robber, powder and iron ; with the invader, death and 
annihilation. 



AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA. 391 

On June 24, 1866, the American schooner Surprise was wrecked 
off the coast (of Whang-hai ?). The approach of any foreign vessel 
was especially dangerous at this time, as the crews might be mis- 
taken for Frenchmen and killed by the people from patriotic im- 
pulses. Nevertheless Captain McCaslin and his men with their 
Chinese cook, after being first well catechised by the local mag- 
istrate, and secondly by a commissioner sent from Seoul, were 
kindly treated and well fed, and provided with clothing, medicines, 
and tobacco. By orders of Tai-wen Kun, they were escorted on 
horseback to Ai-chiu, and, after being feasted there, were conducted 
safely to the Border Gate. Thence, after a hard journey via Muk- 
den, they got to Niu-chwang and to the United States consul. A 
gold watch was voted by Congress to the Rev. Pere Gillie for his 
kindness to these men while in Mukden. 

From a passage in one of the letters of the Corean Government, 
we gather that the crew of still another American ship were hos- 
pitably treated after shipwreck, but of the circumstances we are 
ignorant. Of the General Sherman affair more is known. 

The General Sherman was an American schooner, owned by a 
Mr. Preston, who was making a voyage for health. She was con- 
signed to Messrs. Meadows & Co., a British firm in Tien-tsin, and 
reached that port July, 1866. After delivery of her cargo, an ar- 
rangement was made by the firm and owner to load her with goods 
likely to be saleable in Corea, such as cotton cloth, glass, tin-plate, 
etc., and despatch her there on an experimental voyage in the hope 
of thus opening the country to commerce. 

Leaving Tien-tsin July 29th, the vessel touched at Chifu, and 
took on board Mr. Hogarth, a young Englishman, and a Chinese 
shroff,' famiKar with Corean money. The complement of the ves- 
sel was now five white foreigners, and nineteen Malay and Chinese 
sailors. The owner, Preston, the master, Page, and the mate, Wil- 
son, were Americans. The Eev. Mr. Thomas, who had learned 
Corean from refugees at Chifu, and had made a trip to Whang-hai 
on a Chinese junk, went on board as a passenger to improve his 
knowledge of the language.^ 

' These shroffs are experts in handling money. They can detect counter- 
feits by the touch, and, with incredible celerity, can reckon amounts to thou- 
sandths of a cent on the abacus. One or more of them are found in nearly 
every one of the banks and hongs in Eurasian ports. 

' Some weeks before, he had offered to penetrate the peninsula as mission- 
ary and agent of the Scottish National Bible Society. The Coreans who had 



392 COREA. 

From the first the character of the expedition was suspected, 
because the men were rather too heavily armed for a peaceful trad- 
ing voyage. It was believed in China that the royal coffins in the 
tombs of Ping-an, wherein more than one dynasty of Cho-sen lay 
buried, were of solid gold ; and it was broadly hinted that the ex- 
pedition had something to do with these. 

The schooner, whether merchant or invader, leaving Chifu, took 
a vp-est-northwest direction, and made for the mouth of the Ta Tong 
Kiver. There they met the Chinese captain of a Chifu junk, who 
agreed to pilot them up the river. He continued on the General 
Sherman during four tides, or two days. Then leaving her, he re- 
turned to the river's mouth, and sailed back to Chifu, where he was 
met and questioned by the firm of Meadows & Co. 

No further direct intelligence was ever received from the un- 
fortunate party. 

The time chosen for this " experimental trading voyage " was 
strangely inopportune. The whole country was excited over the 
expected invasion of the French, and to a Corean — especially in the 
north, where not one in ten thousand had ever seen a white for- 
eigner — any man dressed in foreign clothes would be taken for a 
Frenchman, as were even the Japanese crew of the gunboat Unyo 
Kuan in 1875. An armed vessel would certainly be taken for a 
French ship, and made the object of patriotic vengeance. 

According to one report, the hatches of the schooner were fas- 
tened down, after the crew had been driven beneath, and set on fire. 
According to another, all were decapitated. The Coreans burned 
the wood work for its iron, and took the cannon for models. 

During this same month of August, 1866, the Jewish merchant 
Ernest Oppert, in the steamer Emperor, entered the Han Kiver, and 
had secret interviews with some of the native Christians, who wrote 
to him in Latin. Communications were also held with the gov- 
ernor of Kang-wa, and valuable charts were made by Captain 
James. One month later, in September, the French war-vessels 
made their appearance. 

The U. S. steamship Wachusett, despatched by Admiral Eowan 
to inquire into the Sherman affair, reached Chifu January 14, 

accompanied Bishop Ridel to Chifu, and who had met Dr. Williamson, 
volunteered to be his guides, and he had decided to go with them. When the 
opportunity of going by the American vessel offered itself, he changed his plan. 
Against the advice of his friends, who suspected the character of the expedition, 
he joined the party. 



AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA. 



393 



1867, and is said to have taken on board the Chinese pilot of the 
General Sherman, and the Rev. Mr. Corbett, an American mission- 
axj, to act as interpreter. Leaving Chifu January 21st, they cast 
anchor, January 23d, at the mouth of the large inlet opposite Sir 
James HaU group, w^hich indents Whang-hai province. This estu- 
ary they erroneously supposed to be the Ta Tong River leading to 
Ping-an city, whereas they were half a degree too far south, as the 
chart made by themselves shows. 

A letter was despatched, through the official of Cow Island, near 



>*' 




UttV 

"Jo P"' MERIN ISLAND 

SIR JAMES HALL(3^ 
GROUP ^ 



Map Illustrating the "General Sherman" Affair. 

the anchorage, to the prefect of the large city nearest the place of 
the Sherman affair, demanding that the murderers be produced on 
the deck of the Wachusett. The city of Ping-an was about seventy- 
five miles distant. The letter probably went to Hai-chiu, the capi- 
tal of the province. Five days elapsed before the answer arrived, 
during which the surveying boats were busy. Many natives were 
met and spoken to, who all told one story, that the Sherman's crew 
were murdered by the people, and not by official instigation.^ 

^ A broad streak of light was thrown upon at least one possible cause of the 
Sherman tragedy, by the statement of the natives that Chinese pirates fre- 
quently descend on the coast and kill and rob the Coreans. During the pre- 



894 CORBA. 

On ttie 29th, an officer from one of the villages of the district 
appeared, "whose presence inspired the greatest dread among the 
people." An interview was held, during which Commander Shu- 
feldt possessed his soul in patience. 

To the polished American's eye, the Corean's manner was 
haughty and imperious. He was utterly beyond the reach of rea- 
son and of argument. In his person he seemed " the perfect type 
of a cruel and vindictive savage." The Corean's impressions of the 
American, not being in print, are unknown. 

It is unnecessary to give the details of the fruitless interview. 
The American could get neither information nor satisfaction ; 
the gist of the Corean reiteration was, " Go away as soon as pos- 
sible." Commander Shufeldt, bound by his orders, could do 
nothing more, and being compelled also by stress of weather, came 
away. 

In 1867, Dr. S. WeUs WiUiams, Secretary of the Legation of 
the United States at Peking, succeeded in obtaining an interview 
with a member of the Corean embassy, who told him that after 
the General Sherman got aground, she careened over, as the tide 
receded, and her crew landed to guard or float her. The natives 
gathered around them, and before long an altercation took place 
between the two parties, which soon led to blows and bloodshed. 
A general attack began upon the foreigners, in which every man 
was kiUed by the mob. About twenty of the natives lost their 
lives. Dr. Williams' comment is, " The evidence goes to uphold 
the presumption that they invoked their sad fate by some rash or 
violent act toward the natives." Dr. WiUiams also met a Chinese 
pilot, Yu Wautai, who reported that in 1867 he had seen the hull 
of a foreign vessel lying on the south bank of the river, about ten 
miles up from the sea. The hull was f uU of water. A Corean from 
Sparrow Island had told him that the murder of the Sherman's 
crew was entirely the work of the people and farmers, and not of 
the magistrates or soldiery. 

Still determined to learn something of the fate of the Sherman's 
crew, since reports were current that two or more of them were 
still alive and in prison. Admiral Kowan, in May, 1867, despatched 
another vessel, which this time got into the right river. Com- 

vious year, several natives had been killed by Chinese pirates near the Wachu- 
sett's anchorage. As ten of the crew of the Sherman were Canton Chinamen, 
it is probable that the very sight of them on an armed vessel would inflame 
the Coreans to take their long-waited for revenge. 



AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COItEA. 395 

mander Febiger, in the U. S. steamship Shenandoah, besides siir- 
veying the "Ping Yang Inlet," learned this version of the affair : 

A foreign vessel arrived in the river two years before. The 
local officials went on board and addressed the two foreign officers 
of the ship in respectful language. The latter grossly insulted the 
native dignitaries, i.e., " they turned round and went to sleep." 

A man on board, whom they spoke of as "Tony,' a French- 
man," used violent and very impolite language toward them. The 
Coreans treated their visitors kindly, but warned them of their 
danger, and the unlawfulness of penetrating into, or trading in the 
country. Nevertheless, the foreigners went up the river to Ping-an 
city, where they seized the " adjutant-general's " ship, put him in 
chains, and proceeded to rob the junks and their crews. The 
people of the city aroused to wrath, attacked the foreign ship with 
fire-arms and cannon ; they set adrift fire-rafts, and even made a 
hand-to-hand fight with pikes, knives, and swords. The foreigners 
fought desperately, but the Coreans overpowered them. Finally, 
the ship, having caught fire, blew up with a terrific report. 

This story was not of course believed by the American officers, 
but even the best wishers and friends of the Ping-an adventurers 
cannot stifle suspicion of either cruelty or insult to the natives. 
Knowing the character of certain members of the party, and re- 
membering the kindness shown to the crew of the Surprise, few of 
the unprejudiced will believe that the General Sherman's crew were 
murdered without cause. 

In 1884, Lieutenant J. B. Bernadon, U.S.N"., made a journey from Seoul 
to Ping-an, and, being able to speak Corean, learned the following from native 
Christians. The Sherman, arriving during the heavy midsummer rains, which 
make the river impassable to native boats, was seen from the city walls and 
caused great excitement. When the waters subsided the governor sent officers 
to inquire her mission. Unfortunately, to gratify their curiosity, the common 
people set out also in a large fleet of boats, which the Sherman's crew mistook 
for a hostile demonstration, and fired guns in the air to warn them off. Then 
all the boats returned. When the river fell the Sherman grounded and 
careened over, which being seen from the city walls a fleet of boats set out 
with hostile intent and were fired upon. Officers and people, now enraged, 
started fire-rafts, and soon the vessel, though with white flag hoisted, was in 
flames. Of those who leaped in the river most were drowned. Of those 
picked up one Tchoi-nan-un (Rev. Mr. Thomas), who was able to talk Corean, 
explained the meaning of the white flag, and begged to be surrendered to 
China. His prayer was in vain. In a few days all the prisoners were led out 
and publicly executed. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

A BODY-SNATCHmG EXPEDITION. 

Early in May, 1867, the foreign settlement at Shangliae was 
thrown into excitement by the report of the return of an unsuccess- 
ful piratical expedition from Corea. The ennui of Eurasian port 
life was turned into a lively glow of excitement. Conversation at 
the clubs and tea-tables, which had wilted down to local gossip. 
Wade's policy, paper hunts, and the races, now turned upon the 
politics and geography, methods of royal sepulture, mortuary arch- 
itecture, antiquities, customs, and costumes in the mysterious pen- 
insula. The pleasures of wheelbarrow rides, and visits to the bub- 
bling springs, now palled before the pending trial at the United 
States consular court. 

An American citizen was charged with making an " unlawful and 
scandalous expedition " to Corea, and of violently attempting to 
land in a country with which the United States had no treaty rela- 
tions. It was further stated that he had gone to exhume the bones 
of a defunct king in order to hold them for sale or ransom. In 
plain English, it was said to be a piratical and body-snatching de- 
scent upon the grave-yards of Cho-sen, to dig up royal remains, 
not for the purpose of dissection, nor in the interests of science or 
of archseology, but for the sake of money, which money was to be 
extorted from the regent and court of Seoul. 

The idea, of course, awoke merriment as well as interest. One 
may well understand why Professor Marsh should make periodical 
descents upon the bone-yards of Red Cloud's territory, and exhibit 
his triumphs — skeletons of toothed birds and of geological horses 
as small as Corean ponies — in a museum under glass cases, well 
mounted with shining brass springs and iron joints. Even a school- 
boy can without laughing think of Dr. Schliemann rooting among 
the tombs of Mycenae, and Di Cesnola sifting the dust of Kurium foi 
its golden treasures. Even the night picture of resurrectionists, 



A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION. 397 

emptying graves in a Scotch kirk-yard for subjects to sell at a 
pound sterling apiece, has few elements of humor about it. 

But to conceive of civilized "Christians," or Israelites, charter- 
ing a steamer to exhume and steal the carcase and mouldering 
bones of a heathen king, to hold them in pawn to raise money on 
them created more laughter than frowns or tears. It was thought 
that the sign under which the ship sailed, instead of being the flag 
of the North German Confederation, should have been the three 
golden balls, such as hang above a pawnbroker's windows. 

The person on trial was formerly an interpreter at the United 
States consulate, and, having learned Chinese from childhood, was 
able to speak the language fluently, and thus converse, by means 
of tongue or pencil, with the many Coreans who know the stand- 
ard of communication in Eastern Asia either by sound or sight. 
It was he also who furnished the cash for the expedition, the com- 
mander-in-chief of which was one Oppert, a North German 
subject ; the guide was a French Jesuit priest named Farout (evi- 
dently a fictitious name) who spoke Corean, having been in the 
country as a missionary. These three were the leaders of the ex- 
pedition. 

Before going, the American had told Consul Seward that his 
object was to take a Corean embassy to Europe, to negociate trea- 
ties, and to explain to the governments of France and the United 
States the murder of their subjects in Corea. Four Coreans, with 
the French missionary Bishop Eidel, had been in Shanghae a short 
time before, April 24, 1867 ; and the defendant declared that it was 
from these four persons, whom he styled " commissioners," that he 
got his information as to the desire of the Corean government for 
treaties, etc. He also stated that this knowledge was held only by 
the four Coreans, himself, and a Jewish pedler, who had several 
times penetrated into Corea, and by whom the Corean " commis- 
sioners," had been brought to Shanghae. These "commissioners," 
he averred, had a new and correct version of the General Sherman 
affair. According to their report, some of the crew had become 
embroiled in a row growing out of the improper treatment of some 
native women, and were arrested. The crew went to rescue them. 
They succeeded, and took also two native officers on board for 
hostages. This so enraged the people that they attacked the crew, 
killed eight at once, and made prisoners of the others who were 
still alive. 

Readers of our narrative will smile at discovering the poor 



398 COREA. 

fishermen who brought their bishop across the Yellow Sea in theii 
boat thus transformed into " ambassadors." 

One thing seemed to be on the surface — that this modem Jason 
and his argonauts had gone out to find a golden fleece, but came 
back shorn. 

On the return of the expedition, Mr. Seward questioned the 
American closely, sifted the matter, and finally, being satisfied that 
something was wrong, put him on trial, eliciting the facts which 
seem to be the following : 

Oppert, who had been at the Naipo, and up the Han River in 
the Emperor and Rona, secured a steamer named the China, of six 
hundred and eighty tons, with a steam tender, the Greta, of sixty 
tons, and run the North German flag up at the fore. The comple- 
ment of the ship was eight Europeans, twenty Malays from Ma- 
nilla, and about one hundred Chinamen, these last were a motley 
crew of sailors, laborers, and coolies — the riff-raff of humanity, 
such as swarm in every Chinese port. With muskets in their hands 
— it is doubtful whether a dozen of them had ever fired off a gun 
— they were to form the " forces" or military escort of the expedi- 
tion, which was to negotiate " treaties," embark an embassy to travel 
round the globe, and introduce the Hermit Nation to the world. 

The "fleet" left Shanghae April 30, 1867, and steamed to Na- 
gasaki ; in which Japanese port she remained two days, taking on 
board coal, water, and ten cases of muskets. The prow was then 
headed for Chung-chong province. They arrived in Prince Jerome 
Gulf at 10 P.M. on Friday, May 8th. The next day at 10 a.m. they 
moved farther in the river. In the afternoon they succeeded in 
getting two small boats, or sampans, partly by persuasion and pay, 
partly by force. The expedition was then organized, Oppert com- 
manding. The mate, engineer, and regular Chinese manned the 
tender which was to tow the boats. The muskets were unpacked 
and distributed on deck, and the coolies were armed, equipped, 
taught the difference between the butt and muzzle of their weap- 
ons, and given their orders. Four men carried spades or coal 
shovels to exhume the bones and treasure. 

The French priest who had been in Corea acted as guide and 
interpreter. Shortly after midnight, and very early on Sunday 
morning, the steam tender began to move up the river, stopping 
at a point about forty miles from the sea. The armed crowd 
landed, and the march across the open country to the tomb was 
begun. As they proceeded, the neighborhood became alive with 



A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION. 399 

curious people, and the hills were white with people gazing at the 
strange procession. A few natives being met on the way, the 
French priest stopped to speak with them. The party rested for 
a while at a temple, for the march was getting tiresome, having 
akeady occupied several hours. 

Eeaching the burial-place [nearTotta-san?], they found a raised 
mound with a slab of stone on each side at the base. Beneath this 
tomb was the supposed treasure. Was it bones or gold ? 

The four men with spades now began their work, and soon 
levelled the mound. They had dug out a considerable quantity of 
earth, when their shovels struck on a rocky slab, which seemed to 
be the lid of the tomb proper, or the sarcophagus. This they 
could not move. All efforts to budge or pry it up were vain. 
Having no crowbars they were, after much useless labor, with per- 
haps not a little swearing, compelled to give up their task. 

On their return march, the exasperated Coreans, plucking up 
courage, attempted to molest them, but the marauders, firing their 
guns in the air, kept their assailants at a respectful distance. The 
party and tender dropped down the river and rejoined the steamer 
at noon, the weather being foggy. 

Further proceedings of the expedition are known only in out- 
line. The steamer weighed anchor and left for Kang-wa Island. 
They put themselves in communication with the local magistrate 
during three days. On the third day a party landed from the 
ship, and while on shore were fired upon. Two men were killed 
and one wounded. 

The expedition remained in Corea ten days, returning to Shang- 
hae after two weeks' absence. 

In the foregoing trial it is most evident that many details were 
concealed. The quantity of truth divulged was probably in pro- 
portion to the whole amount, as the puffs of steam from a safety- 
valve are to the volume in the boiler. The accused let out just 
enough to save them from conviction and to secure their acquittal. 

The defendant was discharged with the Scotch verdict "not 
proven." Mr. George F. Seward, however, wrote to the State 
Department at Washington his opinion, that the expedition was 
" an attempt to take from their tombs the remains of one or more 
sovereigns of Corea, for the purpose, it would seem, of holding 
them to ransom." 

Whether any great amount of treasure is ever buried with the 
sovereigns or grandees of Cho-sen is not known to us. Certain it 



400 



CORBA. 



is that the national sentiment is that of horror against the distur- 
bance or rifling of sepulchres. Now they had before their eyes a 
fresh confirmation of their suspicions that the chief purpose of 
foreign invaders was to rob the dead and violate the most holy 
instincts of humanity. The national mind now settled into the 
conviction that, beyond all doubt, foreigners were barbarians and 
many of them thieves and robbers. With such eyes were they 




Map Illustrating the "China" Affair. 



ready to look upon the flag and ships of the United States when 
they came in 1871. 

Note. — Nearly eyerj word of the above was written in December, 1877, the 
information having been derived from the United States Diplomatic Correspon- 
dence. At that time we suspected that " Farout " was the fictitious name of 
Feron, the French Roman Catholic missionary, who had escaped the persecu- 
tions of 1866. It seems that three countries and three religions were repre- 
sented in this body-snatching expedition, which was of a truly international 
character. 

In March, 1880, there was published in London and New York the 
English translation of " Ein Verschlossenes Land," a work printed in Germany. 
As we read "A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea," it dawned upon ua 



A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION. 401 

that the author was none other than "the needy Hamburgh trader," "the 
Jewish pedler," of the Consular Court trial of 1867. It was even so. Coolly 
and without denial, the author tells us that the main object of his last voyage 
was to " remove " some buried relics held in great veneration by that " blood 
thirsty tyrant," the Tai-wen Kun, or regent. The project was first suggested to 
him by the French priest, who, as the author takes pains to tell us, was not a 
Jesuit, nor had ever belonged to that order (p. 295), though he gives Feron's 
proposition in his own words (p. 299), the italics being ours : 

" If the project I am going to lay before you (z'.e., to rob the grave) will at 
first sight appear to you strange and out of the common, remember that a great 
aim can never he gained hy small means, and that we must look at this affair 
from another point of view than that which may be taken by narrow-minded 
people." 

The details of the landing, march [to near Totta-san ?] , excavation, and re- 
treat are duly narrated, the blame of failure being laid upon one unlucky 
wight who was " the only disreputable character we had with us !" 

After leaving Prince Jerome Gulf, the China proceeded up the Han River 
to Tricault Island (see map, page 379), * ' about twenty minutes' steam beloAv 
Kang-wha." There the leader received a note from the Taiouen-goon (the 
Tai-wen Kun, or regent), the gist of which was, "Corea has no need of foreign 
intruders. " While holding a parley near the wall of a town on Tricault Island, 
"the only disreputable character" in the party again got them into trouble. 
This black sheep was a German sailor, who, hungering after fresh veal, had 
stolen a calf ; an act which drew the fire of the native soldiery on the city wall. 
The thief received a ball in his arm, which compelled him to drop the calf 
and run, while one Manilaman was shot dead. It is not known how far the 
statistics of a Corean warfare diverge from those elsewhere, nor how many 
tons of lead are required to kill one man, but owing to the incredibly bad aim 
of the jingal shooters, the remainder of the party of twenty or more escaped 
their deserts and reached the tender. The next morning the expedition set 
out on the return to Shanghae. 

After a review of this book (in The Nation of April 7, 1880), which the author 
issued after his imprisonment, the following note appeared in the same paper 
of April 21st : 

Oppert's Corean Outrage. 

To the Editor of The Nation : 

Sir : The notice of Oppert's book on Corea recalls some curious incidents 
to my mind. The raid on the King's tomb was one of the most extraordinary 
affairs ever known. Its inception and failure might have been concealed but 
for the Coreans, when they attacked the ghouls, killing an unfortunate 
Manilaman. Hearing of this, the Spanish consul applied to Mr. Seward 
(United States Consul-General at Shanghae), who at once arrested Jenkins. I 
was one of the four ' ' associates " summoned to sit with the consul-general in 
the trial, and well remember what a perfect burlesque it was. The Chinese, 
who had told a plain and coherent story on preliminary examination, were as 
dumb as oysters on the stand. When all had been called, the defendant's 
counsel said that he would rest his case on their testimony. Conviction was 
26 



402 COREA. 

impossible, but in the minds of those informed on the subject, the wicked- 
ness of this buccaneering expedition was remembered as surpassing even the 
absurdity of an attempt to destroy a granite mausoleum with coal shovels. 
There is a monstrous impertinence in Oppert's publishing an account of a 
piratical fiasco which is reported to have cost him a term of imprisonment at 
home. 

A. A. Hayes, Jr. 
New York, April 15, 1880. 



CHAPTER XLYL 

"OXJR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 

The representations made to the Department of State at Wash- 
ington by Dr. S. Wells Williams, concerning the General Sherman, 
and by Consul-General George F. Seward, in the matter of the 
China, affair, directed the attention of the Government to the 
opening of Corea to American commerce. The memorial of Mr. 
Seward, dated October 14, 1868, reviewed the advantages to be 
gained and the obstacles in the way. The need of protection to 
American seamen was pointed out, and as Japan had been opened 
to international relations by American diplomacy, why should not a 
smaller nation yield to persuasion? American merchants in China 
having seconded Mr. Seward's proposal, the State Department took 
the matter into serious consideration, and, in 1870, resolved to un- 
dertake the difficult enterprise. 

The servants of the United States who were charged with this 
deHcate mission were, Mr. Frederick F. Low, Minister of the 
United States to Peking, and Rear- Admiral John Rodgers, Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Asiatic squadron. Mr. Low was directed by 
Secretary Fish to gain all possible knowledge from Peking, and 
then proceed on the admiral's flag-ship to the Corean capital. He 
was to make a treaty of commerce if possible, but his chief aim was 
to secure provision for the protection of shipwrecked mariners. He 
was to avoid a conflict of force, unless it could not be avoided 
without dishonor. " The responsibility of war or peace " was to be 
left with him and not with the admiral. ' 

There was at this time, all over the far East, a feeling of uncer- 

' Mr. Low, wlio had served one term in Congress and as governor of Cali- 
fornia from 1864 to 1868, had been chosen by President Grant to be minister to 
China the year before, 1869, was new to his duties. He was in the prime of 
life, being fifty-two years of age. All his despatches show that Ch5-sen was as 
unknown to him as Thibet or Anam, and from the first he had scarcely one ray 
of hope in the success of the mission. 



404 COREA. 

tainty and alarm among foreigners, and many portentious signs 
seemed to indicate a general uprising, both in China and Japan, 
against foreigners. The example of Corea in expelling or behead- 
ing the French priests acted as powerful leaven in the minds of the 
fanatical foreigner-haters in the two countries adjoining. The 
" mikado-reverencers," who in Japan had overthrown the " Tycoon " 
and abolished the dual system of government, made these objects 
only secondary to the expulsion of all aliens. The cry of " honor the 
mikado " was joined to the savage yell of the Jo-i (alien-haters), 
" expel the barbarians." In China the smothered feelings of mur- 
derous animosity were almost ready to burst. The air was filled 
with alarms, even while the American fleet was preparing * for Corea. 

Rear- Admiral Rodger s,* who had taken command, and relieved 
Admiral Rowan, August 20, 1869, began his preparations with vigor. 

In a consultation held at Peking during November, 1870, be- 
tween the admiral, minister, and consul general, the time for the 
expedition was fixed for the month of May, 1871. Mr. Seward 
then left for a visit to India, and Mr. Low despatched, through the 
Tribunal of Rites at Peking, a letter to the King of Corea. After 
vast circumlocution, it emerged from the mazes of Chinese court 
etiquette, and by a special courier reached the regent at Seoul. 
In this, however, the Chinese were doing a great favor. No answer 
was received from Seoul before the expedition sailed. 

Meanwhile the German minister to Japan (now in Peking), 

' Admiral Rodgers left New York, April 9, 1869, with tlie Colorado and 
Alaska. The Benicia had left Portsmouth March 2d, and the Palos set sail 
from Boston June 20th. These vessels, with the Monocacy and Ashuelot, were 
to form the Asiatic squadron of Admiral Rodgers. Of our vessels on the station 
during the previous year, two had returned home, two had been sold, the rot- 
ten Idaho was moored at Yokohama as a store-ship, and the Oneida, which had 
been sunk by the British mail-steamer Bombay, lay with her uncoffined dead 
untouched and neglected by the great Government of the United States. Ad- 
miral Rodgers was so delayed by repairs to the Ashuelot, that finally, in order 
to gain the benefit of the spring tides, had to sail without this vessel. 

2 Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, who commanded the fleet, was a veteran in 
war, in naval science, and in polar research. He had served in the Seminole 
and Mexican campaigns, and through the civil war on the iron-clad monitors. 
He had visited the Pacific in 1853, when in command of the John Hancock. 
He had cruised in the China seas and sailed through Behring's Straits. He, 
too, was in the prime of life, being at this time fifty-eight years of age. His 
whole conduct of the expedition displayed consummate skill, and marked him 
in this, as in his many other enterprises, as "one of the foremost naval men of 
the age. " Yet princes in naval science are not always princes in diplomacy. 



•*OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 405 

Herr M. Von Brandt, had landed from the Hertha at Fusan, and 
attempted to hold an interview with the governor of Tong-nai. He 
was accompanied by the Japanese representatives at Fusan, who 
poHtely forwarded his request. A tart lecture to the mikado's sub- 
ject for his officiousness, and a rebuff to the Kaiser's envoy were 
the only results of his mission. After sauntering about a little, 
Herr Von Brandt, who arrived June 1, 1878, left June 2d, and the 
era of commercial relations between the Central European Empire' 
and Cho-sen was postponed. 

During the year 1870, Bishop Kidel, who had gone back to 
France, returned to China and prepared to rejoin his converts. 
Having communicated with them, they awaited his coming with anxi- 
ety, and we shall hear of them on board of the flag-ship Colorado. 

Mr. Low, having gathered all possible information, public and 
private, concerning "the semi-barbarous and hostile people" of 
" the unknown country ' which he expected to fail of entering, 
sailed from Shanghae, May 8th, arriving at Nagasaki, May 12th. 
On the 13th he wrote to the Secretary of State, Mr. Hamilton 
Fish. He declared that " Corea is more of a sealed book than 
Japan was before Commodore Perry's visit." Evidently he looked 
upon the pathway of the duty laid upon him as unusually thorny. 
The rose if plucked at all would be held in smarting fingers. 
While granting a faithful servant of the nation the virtue of mod- 
esty, one cannot fail to read in his letter more of an expectation to 
redress wrongs than to conciHate hostility. 

' The first appearance of the flag of North Germany in Corean waters was 
at the mast-head of the China, when plunder and dead men's bones were the 
objects sought. Its second appearance, on the Hertha man-of-war, was in peace 
and honorable quest of friendly relations. Its third appearance, in May, 1871 
— while, or shortly before, the American fleet were in the Han River — was on 
the schooner Chusan, which was wrecked on one of the islands of Sir James 
Hall group, the Chinese crew only, it appears, being saved. On June 6th, a 
party of three foreigners left Chifu in a junk to bring back salvage from the 
wreck. These men were not heard from until July 6th, when the Chinese 
crew returned without them. On the same day the British gunboat Eingdove, 
with the consul of Chifu, left for the Hall group. It was found that the for- 
eigners had landed to bring away the crew of the Chusan, when the China- 
men, pretending or thinking that they had been taken prisoners, put off to sea 
without them. The consul found them in good health and spirits, and the 
Ringdove brought away for them whatever was worth saving from the Chusan. 
Again the Corean policy of kindness toward the shipwrecked was illustrated. 
The two foreigners — a Scotchman and a Maltese — had been well fed and kindly 
treated. 



406 COREA. 

The whole spirit of the expedition was not that reflected in the 
despatches of the State Department, but rather that of the clubs 
and dinner-tables of Shanghae. The minister went to Corea 
with his mind made up, and everything he saw confirmed him in 
his fixed opinion. Of the admiral, it is not unjust to say that the 
warrior predominated over the peace-maker. He had an eye to the 
victories of war more than those, not less renowned, of peace. 
The sword was certainly more congenial to his nature than the pen. 

The fleet made rendezvous at Nagasaki, in Kiushiu— that divi- 
sion of Japan whence warlike expeditions to Cho-sen have sailed 
from the days of Jingu to those of Taiko, and from Taiko to Kodgers. 
This time, as in the seventh century, the landing was to be made 
not near the eastern, but on the remote western, coast. The cry 
was, "On to Seoul." 

The squadron, consisting of the flag-ship Colorado, the corvettes 
Alaska and Benicia, and the gun-boats Monocacy and Palos, sailed 
gallantly out of the harbor on May 16th, and, making an easy run, 
anchored off Ferrieres Islands on the 19th, and, after a delay of 
fogs. Isle Eugenie on the 23d. 

In spite of the formidable appearance of our navy, the vessels 
were of either an antiquated type or of too heavy a draught, their 
timbers too rotten or not strong enough for shotted broadsides, 
and their armanent defective in breech-loading firearms, while the 
facilities for landing a force were inadequate. The Palos and 
Monocacy were the only ships fitted to go up the Han Kiver. The 
others must remain at the mouth. They were httle more than 
transports. All the naval world in Chinese waters wondered why 
so wide-awake and practical a people as the Americans should be 
content with such old-fashioned ships, unworthy of the gallant crews 
who manned them. However, the fleet and armament were better 
than the Corean war-junks, or mud-forts armed with jingals. In 
gallant sailorly recognition of his predecessor, yet with unconscious 
omen of like failure, the brave Eodgers named the place of anchor- 
age Roze Roads. The French soundings were verified and the 
superb scenery richly enjoyed. All navigators of the approaches 
to Seoul are alike unanimous in showering unstinting praise upon 
their natural beauty. Here for the first time the natives beheld the 
"flowery" flag of the United States. 

Next morning the Palos and four steam-launches were put under 
the command of Captain Homer C. Blake, to examine the channel be- 
yond Boisee Island. Four days were peaceably spent in this service. 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 



407 



a safe return being made on the evening of the 28th. Meanwhile 
boat parties had landed and been treated in a friendly manner by 
the people, and the usual curiosity as to brass buttons, blue cloth, 
and glass bottles displayed. The customary official paper without 
signature, of interrogations as to who, whence, and why of the 
comers was displayed, and the answers, "Americans," "Friendly," 
and " Interview " re- 
turned in faultless 
Chinese. It was an- 
nounced that the 
fleet would remain 
for some time. 

On the follow- 
ing day. May 30th, 
the fleet anchored 
between the Isles 
Boisee and Guerri- 
ere. A stiff breeze 
had blown away the 
fogs and revealed 
the verdure and the 
features of a land- 
scape which struck 
all with admiration 
for its luxuriant 
beauty. Approach- 
ing the squadron in 
a junk, some natives 
made signs of friend- 
ship, and came on 
board without hesi- 
tation. They bore 
a missive acknowl- 
edging the receipt 
of the Americans' 
letter, and announcing that three nobles had been appointed by 
the regent for conference. These junk-men were merely messen- 
gers, and made no pretence of being anything more. They were 
hospitably treated, shown round the ship, and dined and wined 
until their good nature broke out in broad grins and redolent vis- 
They stood for their photographs on deck, and some fine 




The Entering Wedge of Civilization." 



408 COREA. 

pictures of them were obtained. One of them, after being loaded 
with an armful of spoil in the shape of a dozen or so of Bass' pale 
ale bottles, minus their corks, and a copy of Every Saturday^ a 
Boston illustrated newspaper, was told in the stereotyped photo- 
grapher's phrase to " assume a pleasant expression of countenance, 
and look right at this point." He obeyed so well, and in the nick 
of time, that a wreath of smiles was the result. " Our first Corean 
visitor " stands before us on the page. 

Strange coincidence ! Strange medley of the significant sym- 
bols of a Christian land ! The first thing given to the Corean was 
alcohol, beer, and wine. In the picture, plainly appearing, are the 
empty pale ale bottles, with their trade-mark, the red triangle — 
"the entering wedge of civilization." But held behind the hands 
clasping the bottles is a copy of Every Saturday, on the front page 
of which is a picture of Charles Sumner, the champion of human- 
ity, and of the principle that "nations must act as individuals," 
with like moral responsibility ! 

Promptly on May 31st, a delegation of eight officers, of the 
third and fifth rank, came on board evidently with intent to see the 
minister and admiral, to learn all they could, and to gain time. 
They had little or no authority and no credentials, but they were 
sociable, friendly, and in good humor. 

" Mr. Low would not lower himself," nor would Admiral 
Kodgers see them. They were received by the secretary, Mr. Drew. 
They were absolutely non-committal on all points and to all ques- 
tions asked, and naturally so, since they had no authority whatever ^ 
to say " yes " or " no " to any proposition of the Americans. 

' These men simply acted as the catspaws for the monkey in the capital to 
pull out as many hot chestnuts from the fire as possible. It is part of Asiatic 
policy to send official men of low rank and no authority to dally and prelude, 
and, if possible, hoodwink or worry out foreigners. Their chief weapons are 
words ; their main strength, cunning . When these are foiled by kindness, and 
equal patience, firmness, and address, the Asiatics yield, and send their men of 
first rank to confer and treat. Perry knew this, so did Townsend Harris in 
Japan ; so have successful diplomats known it in China. Was it done in the 
American expedition to Corea in 1871 ? Let us see. 

These Coreans had no right to say either ' ' yes " or " no " to any proposition of 
the Americans. Had they committed themselves to anything definite, degra- 
dation, crushed shin-bones, and perhaps death, might have been their fate. 
The only thing for the Americans to do — who came to ask a favor which the 
Coreans were obstinately bent on not giving — was to feast them, treat them 
with all kindness, get them in excellent good humor, send them back, and 
wait till accredited envoys of high rank should arrive. In the light of the 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 409 

A golden opportunity was here lost. The Corean envoys were 
informed that soundings would be taken in the river, and the shores 
would be surveyed. It was hoped that no molestation would be 
offered, and, further, that twenty-four hours would elapse before the 
boats began work. 

" To all this they (the Coreans) made no reply which could in- 
dicate dissent. " [Certainly not ! They had no power to nod their 
heads, or say either " yes " or " no." ] " So, believing that we might 
continue our surveys while further diplomatic negotiations were 
pending, an expedition was sent to examine and survey the SaKe 
[Han] Eiver." ' 

The survey fleet consisted of the Monocacy, Palos, the only 
ships fit for the purpose, and four steam-launches, each of the latter 
having a howitzer mounted in the bow. Captain H. C. Blake, the 
commander, was on board the Palos. The old hero understood the 
situation only too well. As he started to obey orders he re- 
marked : "In ten minutes we shall have a row." 

Exactly at noon of June 2d, the four steam-launches proceeded 

Frencli failure, this was the only course to pursue. There were even men of 
influence in the American fleet who advised this policy of patience. As mat- 
ter of fact, such a course was urged by Captain H. S. Blake. 

In such an emergency, patience, kindness, tact, the absence of any burn- 
ing idea of "wiping out insults to the flag," and an antiseptic condition toward 
fight were most needed — the higher qualities, of resolution and self-conquest 
rather than valor. Even if it had been possible to inflict ten times the dam- 
age which was afterward actually inflicted, and win tenfold more "glory," 
the rear-admiral must have known that nature and his "instructions" were 
on the side of the Coreans, and that the only end of the case must be a retreat 
from the country. And the only possible interpretation the people could put 
upon the visit of the great American fleet would be a savage thirst for need- 
less vengeance, a sordid greed of gain, and the justification of robbers and in- 
vaders. In spite of all the slaughter of their countrymen, they would read in 
the withdrawal of their armies, defeat, and defeat only. 

^ These are the rear-admiral's own words. Here was the mistake ! From 
what may be easily known of the Corean mind, it must have seemed to them 
that the advance of such an armed force up the river, leading to the capital — 
following exactly the precedent of the French — was nothing more than a 
treacherous beginning of war in the face of assurances of peace. To enter into 
their waters seemed to them an invasion of their country. To do it after fair 
words spoken in friendship seemed basest treachery. Had a Corean officer 
counselled peace in the face of the advancing fleet, he would undoubtedly 
have been beheaded at once as a traitor. There were men on the American 
side who saw this. Some spoke out loud of it to others, but it was not ' ' theirs 
to make reply." 



410 COREA. 

in line abreast up tlie river, the Palos and Monocacy following. 
The tide was running up, and neither of the large vessels could be 
kept moving at a rate slow enough to allow the survey work to be 
done well, so that this part of their work is of little value. 

Yet everything seemed quiet and peaceful ; the bluffs and high 
banks along the water were densely covered with green woods, with 
now meadows, now a thatched-roof village, anon a rice-field in the 
foreground. Occasionally people could be seen in their white 
dresses along the banks, but not a sign of hostility or war until, on 
reaching the lower end of Kang-wa Island, a line of forts and flut- 
tering flags suddenly become visible. In a few minutes more long 
lines of white-garbed soldiery were seen, and through a glass an 
interpreter read on one of the yellow flags the Chinese characters 
meaning " General Commanding." In the embrasures were a few 
pieces of artillery of 32-pound calibre, and some smaller pieces 
lashed together by fives, or nailed to logs in a row. On the oppo- 
site point of the river was a line of smaller earthworks, freshly 
thrown up, armed only with jingals. Around the bend in the 
river was " a whirlpool as bad as Hell Gate," full of eddies and 
ledges, with the channel only three hundred feet wide. The fort 
(Du Conde) was situated right on this elbow. Hundreds of mats 
and screens were ranged within and on the works, masking the 
loaded guns. As the boats passed nearer, glimpses into the fort 
became possible, by which it was seen that the cannon " lay nearly 
as thick together as gun to gun and gun behind gun on the floor of 
an arsenal." (See map, page 415.) 

For a moment the silence was ominous — oppressive. The hearts 
of the men beat violently, their teeth were set, and calm defiance 
waited in the face of certain death. The rapid current bore them 
on right into the face of the frowning muzzles. It seemed impos- 
sible to escape. Were the Coreans going to fire ? If so, why not 
now ? Immediately ? Now is their opportunity. The vessels are 
abreast the forts. 

The Corean commander was one moment too late. From the 
parapet under the great flag a signal gun was fired. In an in- 
stant mats and screens were alive with the red fire of eighty pieces 
of artillery. Then a hail of shot from all the cannon, guns, and 
jingals rained around the boats. Forts, batteries, and walls were 
hidden for a moment in smoke. The water was rasped and torn as 
though a hailstorm was passing over it. Many of the men in the 
boats were wet to the skin by the splashing of the water over them. 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 41 J 

Old veterans of the civil war had never seen so much fire, lead, iron, 
and smoke of bad powder concentrated in such small space and 
time. " Old Blake," who had had two ships shot under him by the 
Confederates, declared he could remember nothing so sharp as this. 

The fire was promptly returned by the steam-launch howitzers. 
The Palos and Monocacy, which had forged ahead, turned back, 
and " Old Blake came round the point a- flying, and let drive all 
the guns of the Palos at them. The consequence was that they 
kicked so hard as to tear the bolts out of the side of the ship and 
render the bulwarks useless during the remainder of the fight." 
The Monocacy also anchored near the point, and sent her ten-inch 
shells into the fort. During her movements, she struck a rock and 
began to leak badly. After hammering at the forts until every- 
thing in them was silenced, the squadron returned down the river, 
sending their explosive compliments into the forts and redoubts as 
they passed. All were quiet and deserted, however, but the com- 
mander's flag was still flying unharmed and neglected. Strange 
to say, out of the entire fleet only one of our men was wounded 
and none was killed ; nor did any of the ships or boats receive any 
damage from the batteries. Two hundred guns had been fired on 
the Corean side. The signal coming too late, the immovability of 
their rude guns, the badness of the powder, and the poor aim of 
the unskilled gunners, were the causes of such an incredibly small 
damage. It was like the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, or 
like those battles which statistics reveal to us, in which it requires 
a ton of lead to kill a man. 

However, it was determined by the chief representatives of the 
civil and naval powers to resent the insult offered to our " flag " in 
the "unprovoked" attack on our vessels, "should no apology or 
satisfactory explanation be offered for the hostile action of the 
Corean government." 

Ten days were now allowed to pass before further action was 
taken. They were ten days of inaction, except preparation for 
further fight and some correspondence with the local magistrate. 
What a pity these ten days had not been spent before, and not 
after, June 2d ! Some civilians, not to say Christians, might also 
be of the opinion that ample revenge had already been taken, 
enough blood spilled, the "honor "of the flag fully "vindicated," 
a delicate diplomatic mission of "peace " spoiled beyond further 
damage, and that further vengeance was folly, and more blood 
spilled, murder. But not so thought the powers that be. 



412 COREA. 

The chastising expedition consisted of the Monocacy, Palos, 
four steam-launches, and twenty boats, conveying a landing force 
of six hundred and fifty-one men, of whom one hundred and five 
were marines. The Benicia, Alaska, and Colorado remained at an- 
chor. The total force detailed for the work of punishing the Co- 
reans was seven hundred and fifty-nine men. These were arranged 
in ten companies of infantry, with seven pieces of artillery. The 
Monocacy had, in addition to her regular armament, two of the 
Colorado's nine-inch guns. Captain Homer C. Blake, who was put 
in charge of the expedition, remained on the Palos. 

The squadron proceeded up the river at 10 o'clock, on the 
morning of the 10th of June, two steam-launches moving in ad- 
vance of the Monocacy. The boats were in tow of the Palos, 
which moved at 10.30. The day was bright, clear, and warm. A 
short distance above the isle Primauguet a junk was seen approach- 
ing, the Coreans waving a white flag and holding a letter from 
one of the ministers of the court. One of the steam-launches met 
the junk, and the letter was received. It was translated by Mr. 
Drew, but as it contained nothing which, in the American eyes, 
seemed like an apology, the squadron moved on. At 1 o'clock the 
Monocacy arrived within range of the first fort and opened with 
her guns, which partly demolished the walls and emptied it in a 
few seconds. 

The landing party, after a two minutes' pull at the oars, reached 
the shore, and disembarked about eight hundred yards below the 
fort. The landing-place was a mud-flat, in which the men sunk to 
their knees in the tough slime, losing gaiters, shoes, and even tear- 
ing off the legs of their trousers in their efforts to advance. The 
howitzers sank to their axles in the heavy ooze. 

Once on firm land, the infantry formed, the marines deploying 
as skirmishers. Unarmed refugees from the villages were not 
harmed, and the first fort was quietly entered. The work of de- 
molition was begun by firing everything combustible and rolling 
the guns into the river. Day being far spent when this was 
finished, the whole force went into camp and bivouacked, taking 
every precaution against surprise. Four companies of infantry 
were first detailed to drag the howitzers out of the mud, a task 
which resembled the wrenching of an armature off a twenty-horse 
power magnet. 

Our men lay down to sleep under the stars. All was quiet 
that Saturday night, except the chatting round the camp-fires and 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 413 

the croaking of the Corean frogs, as the men cleaned themselves 
and prepared for their Sunday work. Toward midnight a body of 
white-coats approached, set up a tremendous howling, and began 
a dropping fire on our main pickets. As they moved about in the 
darkness, they looked Hke ghosts. When the long roll was sounded, 
our men sprang to their arms and fell in like old veterans. A 
few shells were scattered among the ghostly howlers, and all was 
quiet again. The marines occupied a strong position half a mile 
from the main body, a rice-field dividing them, with only a narrow 
foot-path in the centre. They slept with their arms at their side, 
and, divided into three reliefs, kept watch. 

While at the anchorage off Boisee Island that evening, twelve 
native Christians, approaching noiselessly in the dark, made signs 
of a desire to communicate. They had come in a junk from some 
point on the coast to inquire after their pastor. Ridel, and two other 
French missionaries whom they expected. To their great distress, 
the Americans could give them no information. Fearing lest the 
government might know, from the build of their craft, from what 
part of the country they came, and punish them for communicating 
with the foreigners, they burned their boat and returned home. 

Next day was Sunday. The reveille was sounded in the camps, 
breakfast eaten, and blankets rolled up. Company C and the pion- 
eers were sent into the fort to complete its destruction, by burning 
up the rice, dried fish, and huts still standing. 

The march began at 7 a.m. The sun rolled up in a cloudless 
sky and the weather was very warm. It was a rough road, if, in- 
deed, it could be called such, being but a bridle-path over hills and 
valleys, and through rice fields. Whole companies were required to 
drag the howitzers up the hills and through the narrow defiles. 
The marines led the advance. The next line of fortifications, the 
" middle fort," was soon entered. The guns were found loaded, as 
they had been deserted as soon as the fort was made a target by 
the Monocacy, every one of whose shots told. The work of dis- 
mantling was here thoroughly done. The sixty brass pieces of ar- 
tillery, all of them insignificant breech-loaders of two-inch bore, 
were tumbled into the river, and the fort appropriately named 
'' Fort Monocacy." 

The difficult march was resumed under a blazing sun and in 
steaming heat. A succession of steep hills lay before them. Sap- 
pers and miners, with picks, shovels, and axes, went ahead levelling 
and widening the road, cutting bushes and filling hollows. The 



414 COREA. 

guns had to be hauled up and lowered down the steep places by 
means of ropes. Large masses of white coats and black heads hov- 
ered on their flanks, evidently purposing to get in the rear. Their 
numbers were increasing. The danger was imminent. The fort 
must be taken soon or never. 

A detachment of five howitzers and three companies were de- 
tailed to guard the flanks and rear under Lieutenant-Commander 
Wheeler. The main body then moved forward to storm the fort 
(citadel). This move of our forces checkmated the enemy and 
made victory sure, redeeming a critical moment and turning danger 
into safety. 

Hardly were the guns in position, when the Coreans, massing 
their forces, charged the hill in the very teeth of the howitzers' fire. 
Our men calmly took sure aim, and by steadily firing at long range, 
so shattered the ranks of the attacking force that they broke and 
fled, leaving a clear field. The fort was now doomed. The splendid 
practice of our howitzers effectually prevented any large body of 
the enemy from getting into action, and made certain the capture 
of the cidadel. 

Meanwhile the Monocacy, moving up the river and abreast of 
the land force, poured a steady fire of sheU through the waUs and 
into the fort, while the howitzers of the rear-guard on the hill 
behind, reversing their muzzles, fired upon the garrison over the 
heads of our men in the ravine. The infantry and marines hav- 
ing rested awhile after their forced march, during which several 
had been overcome by heat and sunstroke, now formed for ^ 
charge. 

The citadel to be assaulted was the key to the whole line of 
fortifications. It crowned the apex of a conical hill one hundred 
and fifty feet high, measuring from the bottom of the raviae. It 
mounted, with the redoubt below, one hundred and forty-three 
guns. The sides of the hill were very steep, the walls of the fort 
joining it almost without a break. Up this steep incline our men 
were to rush in the face of the garrison's fire. Could the white- 
coats depress the jingals at a sufficiently low angle, they must an- 
nihilate the blue-jackets. Should our men reach the walls, they 
could easily enter through the breaches made by the Monocacy 's 
shells. As usual, slowness, and the national habit of being behind 
time, saved our men and lost the day for Corea. 

A terrible reception awaited the Americans. Every man inside 
was bound to die at his post, for this fort being the key to all the 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 



415 



others, was held by the tiger-hunters, who, if they flinched before 
the enemy, were to be put to death by their own people. 



w l.'/Eorceg 




Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871 



All being ready, our men rose up with a yell and rushed for 
the redoubt, officers in front. A storm of jingal balls rained over 



416 COREA. 

their heads, but their dash up the hill was so rapid that the gar- 
rison could not depress their pieces or load fast enough. Their 
powder burned too slowly to hurt the swift Yankees. Goaded to 
despair the tiger-hunters "chanted their war-dirge in a blood- 
chilling cadence which nothing can dupHcate." They mounted 
the parapet, fighting with furious courage. They cast stones at 
our men. They met them with spear and sword. With hands 
emptied of weapons, they picked up dust and threw in the invaders' 
eyes to blind them. Expecting no quarter and no relief, they con- 
tested the ground inch by inch and fought only to die. Scores 
were shot and tumbled into the river. Most of the wounded were 
drowned, and some cut their own throats as they rushed into the 
water. 

Lieutenant McKee was the first to mount the parapet and leap 
inside the fort. For a moment, and only a moment, he stood alone 
fighting against overwhelming odds. A bullet struck him in the 
groin, a Corean brave rushed forward, and, with a terrible lunge, 
thrust him in the thigh, and then turned upon Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Schley, who had leaped over the parapet. The spear passed 
harmlessly between the arm and body of the American as a carbine 
bullet laid the Corean dead. 

The fort was now full of officers and men, and a hand to hand 
fight between the blue and white began to strew the ground with 
corpses. Corean sword crossed Yankee cutlass, and clubbed car- 
bine brained the native whose spear it dashed aside. The garrison 
fought to the last man. Within the walls those shot and bayoneted 
numbered nearly one hundred. Not one unwounded prisoner was 
taken. The huge yellow cotton flag, which floated from a very 
short staff in the centre, was hauled down by Captain McLane Til- 
ton and two marines. Meanwhile a desperate fight went on out- 
side the fort. During the charge, some of the Coreans retreated 
from the fort, a movement which caught the eye of Master McLean. 
Hastily collecting a part}^ of his men, he moved to the left on the 
double quick to cut off the fugitives. He was just in time. The 
fugitives, forty or fifty in all, after firing, attempted to rush past 
him. They were driven back in diminished numbers. Hemmed 
in between the captured fort and their enemy, McLean charged 
them with his handful of men. Hiding behind some rocks, they 
fought with desperation until they were all killed, only two or three 
being made prisoners. Another party attempting to escape were 
nearly annihilated by Cassel's battery, which sent canister into their 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 417 

flying backs, mowing them down in swaths. Moving at full speed, 
many were shot like rabbits, falling heels over head. At the same 
time Captain Tilton passed to the right of the fort and caught 
another party retreating along the crest of the hill joining the two 
forts, and, with a steady carbine fire, thinned their numbers. At 
12.45 the stars and stripes floated over all the forts. A photographer 
came ashore and on his camera fixed the horrible picture of blood. 
• The scene after the battle-smoke cleared away, and our men sat 
down to rest, was of a kind to thoroughly satisfy those " who look 
on war as a pastime." It was one from which humanity loves to 
avert her gaze. Two hundred and forty-three corpses in their 
white garments lay in and around the citadel. Many of them were 
clothed in thick cotton armor, wadded to nine thicknesses, which 
now smouldered away. A sickening stench of roasted flesh filled 
the air, which, during the day and night, became intolerable. Some 
of the wounded, fearing their captors worse than their torture, 
slowly burned to death ; choosing rather to suffer living cremation 
than to save their lives as captives. Our men, as they dragged the 
smoking corpses into the burial trench, found one man who could 
endure the torture no longer. Making signs of life, he was soon 
stripped of his clothes, but died soon after of his wounds and 
burns. Only twenty prisoners, all wounded, were taken alive. 
At least a hundred corpses floated or sunk in the river, which ran 
here and there in crimson streaks. At this one place probably as 
many as three hundred and fifty Corean patriots gave up their lives 
for their country. 

On the American side, the gallant McKee, who fell as his father 
fell in Mexico, at the head of his men, the first inside the stormed 
works, was mortally wounded, and died soon after. One lands- 
man of the Colorado and one marine of the Benicia were killed. 
Five men were severely, and five slightly, wounded. 

The other two forts below the citadel being open to the rear 
from the main work were easily entered, no regular resistance 
being offered. The results of the forty-eight hours on shore, eigh- 
teen of which were spent in the field, were the capture of five forts 
— probably the strongest in the kingdom — fifty flags, four hundred 
and eighty- one pieces of artillery, chiefly jingals, and a large num- 
ber of matchlocks. Of the artillery eleven pieces were 32,- fourteen 
were 24,- two were 20,- and the remaining four hundred and fifty- 
four were 2- and 4-pounders. The work of destruction was car- 
ried on and made as thorough as fire, axe, and shovel could make 
37 



418 COREA. 

it. A victory was won, of which the American navy may fee\ 
proud. Zeal, patience, discipline, and bravery characterized men 
and officers in all the movements. 

The wounded were moved to the Monocacy. The forts were 
occupied all Sunday night, and early on Monday morning the 
whole force was re-embarked in perfect order, in spite of the furi- 
ous tide, rising twenty feet. The fleet moved down the stream 
with the captured colors at the mast-heads and towing the boats 
laden with the trophies of victory. Eeaching the anchorage 
at half past ten o'clock, they were greeted with such ringing 
cheers of their comrades left behind as made the woodlands echo 
again. 

Later in the day, Dennis Hendrin (or Hanrahan) and Seth Allen, 
the two men slain in the fight, were buried on Boisee Island, and 
the first American graves rose on Corean soil. At 5.45 p.m. McKee 
breathed his last.* 

Yet the odds of battle were dreadful — three graves against 
heaps upon heaps of unburied slain. Well might the pagan ask : 
" What did Heaven mean by it ? " 

The native wounded were kindly cared for, and their broken 
bones mended, by the fleet surgeon. Dr. Mayo. Admiral Kodgers, 
in a letter to the native authorities, offered to return his prisoners. 
The reply was in substance : "Do as you please with them." The 
prisoners were therefore set ashore and allowed to dispose of 
themselves. 

Admiral Eodgers having obeyed to the farthest limit the orders 
given him, and all hope of making a treaty being over, two of the 
ships, withal needing to refit, the fleet sailed from the anchorage off 
Isle Boisee the day before the fourth of July, arriving in Chifu on 
the morning of July 5th, after thirty-five days' stay in Corean 
waters. He arrived in time to hear of the Tientsin massacre, which 
had taken place June 20th. "Our little war with the heathen," as 
the New York Herald styled it, attracted slight notice in the United 
States. A few columns of news and comment from the metropoli- 
tan press, a page or two of woodcuts in an illustrated newspaper, 
the i-inging of a chime of jests on going up Salt Eiver (Salee), and 

^ In the chapel of the Naval Academy, at Annapolis, a tasteful mural tablet, 
" Erected by his brother officers of the Asiatic squadron," with the naval em- 
blems — sword, belt, anchor, and glory-wreath — in medallion, and inscription 
on a shield beneath, keeps green the memory of an unselfish patriot and a 
gallant officer. 



"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 419 

the usual transmission of official documents, summed up the tran- 
sient impression on the American public. 

In China the expedition was looked upon as a failure and a de- 
feat. The popular Corean idea was, that the Americans had come 
to avenge the death of pirates and robbers, and, after several bat- 
tles, had been so surely defeated that they dare not attempt the 
task of chastisement again. To the Tai-wen Kun the whole matter 
was cause for personal glorification. The tiger-hunters and the eon- 
servative party at court believed that they had successfully defied 
both France and America, and driven off their forces with loss. 
When a Scotch missionary in Shing-king reasoned with a Corean 
concerning the power of foreigners and their superiority in war, 
the listener's reply, delivered with angry toss of the head and a 
snap of the fingers, was : " What care we for your foreign iavea* 
tions? Even our boys laugh at all your weapons." 



CHAPTER XLVn. 

THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 

The walls of Corean isolation, so long intact, had been sapped 
by the entrance of Christianity and the French missionaries, and 
now began to crumble. With the Russians on the north, and the 
sea no longer a barrier, the Japanese began to press upon the east, 
while China broke through and abolished the neutrality of the 
western border. The fires of civilization began to smoke out the 
hermit. 

The revolutions of 1868 in Japan, culminating after a century 
of interior preparation, abolished the dual system and feudalism, 
and restored the mikado to supreme power. The capital was re- 
moved to Tokio, and the office of Foreign Affairs — a sub-bureau — 
was raised to a department of the Imperial administration. One 
of the first things attended to was to invite the Corean govern- 
ment to resume ancient friendship and vassalage. 

This summons, coming from a source unrecognized for eight 
centuries, and to a regent swollen with pride at his victory over the 
French and his success in extirpating the Christian religion, and 
irritated at Japan for adopting western principles of progress 
and cutting free from Chinese influence and tradition, was spurned 
with defiance. An insolent and even scurrilous letter was returned 
to the mikado's government, which stung to rage the military 
classes of Japan, who began to form a " war-party," which was 
headed by Saigo of Satsuma. Waiting only for the return of the 
embassy from Europe, and for the word to take up the gage of bat- 
tle, they nourished their wrath to keep it warm. 

It was not so to be. New factors had entered the Corean 
problem since Taiko's time. European states were now concerned 
in Asiatic politics. Russia was too near, China too hostile, and 
Japan too poor ; she was even then paying ten per cent, interest to 
London bankers on the Shimonoseki Indemnity loan. Financial 
ruin, and a collision with China might result, if war were declared. 



THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 421 

In October, 1873, the cabinet vetoed the scheme, and Saigo, the 
leader of the war party, resigned and returned to Satsuma, to 
nourish schemes for the overthrow of the ministry and the humiHa- 
tion of Corea. "The eagle, even though starving, refuses to eat 
grain;" nor would anything less than Corean blood satisfy the 
Japanese veterans. 

In 1873, the young king of Corea attained his majority. His 
father, Tai-wen Kun, by the act of the king backed by Queen Cho, 
was relieved of office, and his bloody and cruel lease of power came 
to an end. The young sovereign proved himself a man of mental 
vigor and independent judgment, not merely trusting to his minis- 
ters, but opening important documents in person. He has been 
ably seconded by his wife Min, through whose influence Tai-wen 
Kun was shorn of influence, nobles of progressive spirit were re- 
instated to office, and friendship with Japan encouraged. In this 
year, 1873, an heir to the throne was born of the queen ; another 
royal child, the offspring of a concubine, having been born in 
1869. 

The neutral belt of land long inhabited by deer and tiger, or 
traversed by occasional parties of ginseng-hunters, had within the 
last few decades been overspread with squatters, and infested by 
Manchiu brigands and Corean outlaws. The depredations of these 
border ruffians both across the Yalu, and on the Chinese settle- 
ments — like the raids of the wild Indians on our Texas frontier — 
had become intolerable to both countries. In 1875, Li Hung 
Chang, sending a force of picked Chinese troops, supported by a 
gunboat on the Yalu, broke up the nest of robbers, and imbibed a 
taste both for Corean politics and for rectifying the frontiers of 
Shing-king. He proceeded at once to make said frontier *' scientific " 
by allovring the surveyor and plowman to enter the no longer de- 
batable land. In 1877, the governor of Shing-king proposing, the 
Peking Government shifted the eastern frontier of the empire 
twenty leagues nearer the rising sun, on the plea that " the width 
of the tract left uncultivated was of less moment than the efficiency 
of border regulations." By this act the borders of China and 
Corea touched, and were written in Yalu water. The last vestige 
of insulation was removed, and the shocks of change now became 
more frequent and alarming. By contact with the living world, 
comatose Corea was to be galvanized into new life. 

Nevertheless the hostile spirit of the official classes, who tyran- 
nize the little country, was shown in the refusal to receive envoys of 



422 COREA. 

the mikado because they were dressed in European clothes, in pett^ 
regulations highly irritating to the Japanese at Fusan, and by the 
overt act of violence which we shall now narrate. 

Since 1868 the Japanese navy, modelled after the British, and 
consisting of American and European iron-clads and war vessels, 
has been manned by crews uniformed in foreign style. On Septem- 
ber 19, 1875, some sailors of the Unyo Kuan, which had been cruis- 
ing off the mouth of the Han River, landing near Kang-wa for water, 
were fired on by Corean soldiers, imder the idea that they were 
Americans or Frenchmen. On the 21st the Japanese, numbering 
thirty-six men, and armed with breech loaders, stormed the fort. 
Most of the garrison' were shot or drowned, the fort dismantled, 
and the spoil carried to the ships. Occupying the works two days, 
the Japanese returned to Nagasaki on the 23d. 

The news of "the Kokwa [Kang-wa] affair" brought the wav- 
ering minds of both the peace and the war party of Japan to a 
decision. Arinori Mori was despatched to Peking to find out the 
exact relation of China to Corea, and secure her neutrahty. Kuroda 
Kiyotaku was sent with a fleet to the Han River, to make, if pos- 
sible, a treaty of friendship and open ports of trade. By the rival 
parties, the one was regarded as the bearer of the olive branch, the 
other of arrows and lightning. With Kuroda went Inouye Bunda 
of the State Department, and Kin Rinshio, the Corean liberal. 

General Kuroda sailed January 6, 1876, amid salvos of the artil- 
lery of newspaper criticism predicting failure, with two men-of-war, 
three transports, and three companies of marines, or less than 
eight hundred men in all, and touching at Fusan, anchored within 
sight of Seoul, February 6th. About the same time, a courier 
from Peking arrived in the capital, bearing the Imperial recom- 
mendation that a treaty be made with the Japanese. The temper 
of the young king had been manifested long before this by his re- 
buking the district magistrate of Kang-wa for allowing soldiers to 
fire on peaceably disposed people, and ordering the offender to 
degi'adation and exile. Arinori Mori, in Peking, had received the 
written disclaimer of China's responsibility over "the outpost 
state," by which stroke of policy the Middle Kingdom freed her- 
self from all possible claims of indemnity from France, the United 
States, and Japan. The way for a treaty was now smoothed, and 
the new difficulties were merely questions of form. Nevertheless, 
while Kuroda was unheard from, the Japanese war preparations 
went vigorously on. 



THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 423 

Kuroda, making Commodore Perry's tactics his own, disposed 
his fleet in the most imposing array, made his transports look like 
men-of-war, by painting port-holes on them, kept up an incredible 
amount of fuss, movement, and bustle, and on the 10th landed a 
dazzling array of marines, sailors, and officers in full uniform, who 
paraded two miles to the treaty-house, on Kang-wa Island, where 
two high commissioners from Seoul, Ji Shinken and In Jisho, aged 
respectively sixty-five and fifty, awaited him. 

One day was devoted to ceremony, and three to negotiation. A 
written apology for the Kang-wa affair was offered by the Coreans, 
and the details of the treaty settled, the chief difficulties being the 
titles to be used. ^ Ten days for consultation at the capital were 
then asked for and granted, at the end of which time, the two com- 
missioners returned, declaring the impossibility of obtaining the 
royal signature. The Japanese at once embarked on their ships 
in disgust. They returned only after satisfactory assurances ; and 
on February 27th the treaty, in which Cho-sen was recognized as 
an independent nation, was signed and attested. The Japanese 
then made presents, mostly of western manufacture, and after be- 
ing feasted, returned March 1st. Mr. Inouye Bunda then pro- 
ceeded to Europe, visiting, on his way, the Centennial Exposition 
at Philadelphia, at which also, it is said, were one or more Corean 
visitors. 

The first Corean Embassy, which since the twelfth century had 
been accredited to the mikado's court, sailed in May, 1876, from Fu- 
san in a Japanese steamer, landing at Yokohama May 29th, at 8 a.m. 
Two Neptune-like braves with the symbols of power — huge iron 

' The Japanese refused to have the Mikado designated by any title but that of 
Whang Ti (Japanese Kotei) showing that he was peer to the Emperor of China ; 
while the Coreans would not, in the same document, have their sovereign written 
down as Wang (Japanese O) because they wished him shown to be an equal of 
the Mikado, though ceremonially subordinate to the Whang Ti or Emperor of 
China. The poor Coreans were puzzled at there being two suns in one heaven, 
and two equal and favorite Sons of Heaven, 

The commissioners from Seoul attempted to avoid the dilemma by having 
the treaty drawn up in the names of the respective envoys only ; this the 
Japanese refused to do. A compromise was attempted by having the titles of 
the Mikado of Japan, and the Hap-mun of Cho-sen inserted at the beginning ; 
and, in every necessary place thereafter, ' ' the government " of Dai Nippon 
(Great Japan), or of Dai Ch5-sen (Great Corea) ; this also failed. Finally, 
neither ruler was mentioned by name or title, nor was reference made to either, 
and the curious document was drawn up in the name of the respective ' ' Gov- 
ernments. " 



424 COREA. 

tridents — led the procession, in which was a band of twenty per« 
formers on metal horns, conch-shells, flutes, whistles, cymbals^ 
and drums. Effeminate-looking pages bore the treaty documents. 
The chief envoy rode on a platform covered with tiger-skins, and 
resting on the shoulders of eight men, while a servant bore the 
umbrella of state over his head, and four minor officers walked at 
his side. The remainder of the suite rode in Jin-riki-shas, and the 
Japanese military and civil escort completed the display. They 
breakfasted at the town hall, and by railroad and steam-cars reached 
Tokio. At the station, the contrast between the old and the new 
was startling. The Japanese stood " with all the outward signs of 
the Civilization that is coming in." " On the other side, were all 
the representatives of the Barbarism that is going out." On the 
following day, the Coreans visited the Foreign Office, and on June 
1st, the envoy, though of inferior rank, had audience of the mikado. 
For three weeks the Japanese amused, enlightened, and startled 
their guests by showing them their war ships, arsenals, artillery, 
torpedoes, schools, buildings, factories, and offices equipped with 
steam and electricity — the ripened fruit of the seed planted by 
Perry in 1854. All attempts of foreigners to hold any communi- 
cation with them, were firmly rejected by the Coreans, who started 
homeward June 28th. The official diary, or report by the ambas- 
sador of this visit to Japan, was afterward published in Seoul. It 
is a colorless narrative carefully bleached of all views and opinions, 
evidently satisfying the scrutiny even of enemies at court. 

During the autumn of this year, 1876, and later on, in follow- 
ing years, the British war-vessels, Sylvia and Swinger, were engaged 
in surveying portions of the coast of Kiung-sang province. Cap- 
tain H. C. Saint John, who commanded the Sylvia, and had touched 
near Fusan in 1855 — long enough to see a native bastinadoed simply 
for selling a chicken to a foreigner— now found more hospitable 
treatment. His adventures are narrated in his chatty book, "The 
Wild Coasts of Nipon." An English vessel, the Barbara Taylor, 
having been wrecked on Corean shores, an attache of the British 
Legation in Tokio was sent to Fusan to thank the authorities for 
their kind treatment of the crew. 

The Japanese found it was not wise to hasten in taking advan- 
tage of their new liberties granted by treaty. Near Fusan, are 
thousands of graves of natives killed in the invasion of 1592-97, 
over which the Coreans hold an annual memorial celebration. 
Hitherto the Japanese had been rigorously kept within their 



THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 425 

guarded enclosure. Going out to witness the celebration, they 
were met with a shower of stones, and found the road block- 
aded. After a small riot in which many words and missiles 
were exchanged, matters were righted, but the temper of the 
people showed that, as in old Japan, it would be long before 
ignorant hermits, and not over-gentle foreigners could live quietly 
together. 

Saigo, of Satsuma, dissatisfied with the peaceful results of Ku- 
roda's mission, and the "brain victory" over the Cor cans, organ- 
ized, during 1877, *'The Satsuma Eebellion," to crush which cost 
Japan twenty thousand lives, $50,000,000, and seven months of 
mighty effort, the story of which has been so well told in the 
lamented A. H. Mounsey's perspicuous monograph. Yet out of 
this struggle, with which Corea manifested no sympathy, the nation 
emerged with old elements of disturbance eliminated, and with a 
broader outlook to the future. A more vigorous policy with Cho- 
sen was at once inaugurated. 

Under the new treaty, Fusan (Corean, Pu-san) soon became a 
bustling place of trade, with a population of two thousand, many 
of whom, however, were poor people from Tsushima. Among the 
public buildings were those of the Consulate, Chamber of Com- 
merce, Bank, Mitsu Bishi (Three Diamonds) Steamship Company, 
and a hospital, under care of Dr. Yano, in which, up to 1882, four 
thousand Coreans and many Japanese have been treated. A Japan- 
ese and Corean newspaper. Chosen Shimpo, restaurants, places 
of amusements of various grades of morality, and a variety of es- 
tablishments for turning wits and industry into money, have been 
established. The decayed gentry of Japan, starting in business 
with the capital obtained by commuting their hereditary pensions, 
found it difficult to compete with the trained merchants of Tokio 
and Ozaka. Great trouble from the lack of a gold and silver cur- 
rency has been experienced, as only the copper and iron sapeks, or 
' cash,' are in circulation. In Corean political economy to let gold 
go out of the country is to sell the kingdom ; and so many rogues 
have attempted the sale of brass or gilt nuggets that an assaying 
office at the consulate has been provided. The government of 
Tokio has urged upon that of Seoul the adoption of a circulating 
medium based on the precious metals ; and, perhaps, Corean coins 
may yet be struck at the superb mint at Ozaka. While gold in 
dust and nuggets has been exported for centuries, rumor credits 
the vaults at Seoul with being full of Japanese gold koban, the 



426 COREA. 

mountains to be well packed with auriferous quartz, and the rivers 
to run with golden sands. 

Among the callers, with diplomatic powers, from the outside 
world in 1881, each eager and ambitious to be the first in wresting 
the coveted prize of a treaty, were two British captains of men-of- 
war, who arrived on Msbj 21st and 28th ; a French naval officer, 
June 16th, who sailed away after a rebuff June 18th ; while at Gen- 
san, June 7th, the British man-of-war, Pegasus, came, and saw, but 
did not conquer. 

After six years of mutual contact at Fusan, the Coreans, though 
finding the Japanese as troublesome as the latter discovered for- 
eigners to be after their own ports were opened, have, with much 
experience learned, settled down to endure them, for the sake of 
a trade which undoubtedly enriches the country. The Coreans 
buy cotton goods, tin-plate, glass, dyes, tools, and machinery, 
clocks, watches, petroleum, flour, lacquer-work, iron, hollow-ware, 
and foreign knick-knacks. A good sign of a desire for personal 
improvement is a demand for bath-tubs. Soap will probably come 
next. 

The exports are gold dust, silver, ox hides and bones, beche-de- 
mer, fish, rice, raw silk, fans, cotton, and bamboo paper, gin- 
seng, furs of many kinds, tobacco, shells for inlaying, dried fish, 
timber, beans and peas, hemp, jute, various plants yielding paper- 
stock, peony-bark, gall-nuts, varnishes and oils, and a variety of 
other vegetable substances having a universal commercial value. 

Even Kiu Kiu has seen the benefits of trade, and five mer- 
chants from what is now the Okinawa ken of the mikado's empire 
— formerly the Loo Choo island kingdom — came to Tokio in Feb- 
ruary, 1882, to form a company with a view to establishing an 
agency in Fusan, and exchanging Corean products for Kiu Kiu 
sugar, grain, and fish. 

Gensan (Corean, Won-san) was opened May 1, 1880. In a fer- 
tile region, traversed by two high roads, with the fur country near, 
and a magnificent harbor in front, the prospects of trade are 
good. The Japanese concession, on which are some imposing pub- 
lic buildings, includes about forty-two acres. An exposition of 
Japanese, European, and American goods was established which 
was visited by 25,000 people, its object being to open the eyes 
and pockets of the natives, who seemed, to the Tokio merchants, 
taller, stouter, and better looking than those of Fusan. One 
twenty-sixth of the goods sold was Japanese, the rest, mostly cot« 



THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 427 

ton goods and ' notions,' were American and European. The busy 
season of trade is in autumn and early winter. For the first three 
months the settlers were less troubled by tigers than by continual 
rumors of the approach of a band of a thousand "foreigner-haters," 
who were sworn to annihilate the aliens on the sacred soil of Cho- 
sen. The bloodthirsty braves, however, postponed the execution 
of their purpose. The Japanese merchants, so far from finding the 
Coreans innocently verdant, soon came in contact with monopoUes, 
rings, guilds, and tricks of trade that showed a surprising knowledge 
of business. Official intermeddling completed their woe, and loud 
and long were the complaints of the mikado's subjects. Yet profits 
were fair, and the first anniversary of the opening of the port was 
celebrated in grand style. Besides dinners and day fireworks, the 
police played the ancient national game of polo, to the great amuse- 
ment of the Coreans. Among the foreign visitors in May, 1881, was 
Doctor Frank Cowan, an American gentleman, and surgeon on the 
Japanese steamer Tsuruga Maru, who made a short journey in the 
vicinity among the good-natured natives. Besides spying out the 
land, and returning well laden with trophies, he records, in a letter 
to the State Department at Washington, this prophecy : " Next to 
the countries on the golden rim of the Pacific, .... to dis- 
turb the monetary equilibrium of the world, will be Corea." "The 
geological structure is not incompatible with the theory that the 
whole region [east coast] is productive of the precious metal." 

To regulate some points of the treaty, and if possible postpone 
the opening of the new port of In-chiiin (Japanese, Nin-sen) a second 
embassy was despatched to Japan, which arrived at Yokohama, 
August 11, 1880. The procession of tall and portly men dressed 
in green, red, and pink garments of coarse cloth, vdth Chinese 
shoes, and hats of mighty diameter, moved through the streets amid 
the rather free remarks of the spectators, who commented in no 
complimentary language on the general air of dinginess which 
these Kip Van Winkles of the orient presented. The Coreans re- 
mained in Tokio until September 8th. Perfect courtesy was every- 
where shown them, as they visited schools and factories, and 
studied Japan's modern enginery of war and peace. The general 
attitude of the Tokio press and populace was that of condescend- 
ing familiarity, of generous hospitality mildly flavored with con- 
tempt, and tempered by a very uncertain hope that these people 
might develop into good pupils — and customers. 

Cho-sen did not lack attentions from the outside world — Kussia, 



428 COREA. 

England, France, Italy, and the United States — during the yeai 
1880. Whether missionaries of the Holy Synod of Russia at- 
tempted to cross the Tumen, we do not know ; but in the spring 
of 1880, a Muscovite vessel appeared off one of the ports of Ham- 
Kiung, to open commercial relations. The offer was politely de- 
clined. The Italian war-vessel Yettor Pisani, having on board H. 
E. H. the Duke of Genoa, arrived off Fusan, August 1, 1880, at 
1 p.M — a few hours after the Corean embassy had left for Japan. 
One survivor of the Italian ship, Bianca Portia, wrecked near Quel- 
part in 1879, had been kindly treated by the Corean authorities 
and sent to Nagasaki. The duke, through the Japanese consul, 
forwarded a letter of thanks to the governor of Tong-nai, who, 
however, returned the missive, though with a courteous answer. 
After seven days, the Vettor Pisani sailed northward, and avoiding 
Gensan and the Japanese consul, anchored off Port Lazareff, where, 
during his six days' stay, he was visited by the local magistrate, to 
whom he committed a letter of application for trade. Some native 
cards of silk-worm's eggs were also secured to test their value for 
Italy. After a three days' visit to Gensan the ship sailed away, the 
Italian believing that negociations with the Coreans would succeed 
better without Japanese aid, and congratulating himself upon hav- 
ing been more successful than the previous attempts by the Brit- 
ish, and especially by the French (Captain Fourmier, of the Lynx) 
and American (Commodore Shufeldt) diplomatic agents, whose let- 
ters were returned unread. 

The Government of the United States had not forgotten Corea, 
and Japan had signified her willingness to assist in opening the 
hermit nation to American commerce. On April 8, 1878, Senator 
Sargent, of California, offered a resolution that President Hayes 
" appoint a commissioner to represent this country in an effort to 
arrange, by peaceful means and with the aid of the friendly offices 
of Japan, a treaty of peace and commerce between the United 
States and the Kingdom of Corea." The bill passed to a second 
reading, but, the Senate adjourning, no action was taken. In 1879, 
the U. S. steamship Ticonderoga, under Commodore R W. Shufeldt, 
was sent on a cruise around the world in the interests of American 
commerce, and to make, if possible, a treaty with Corea. Enter- 
ing the harbor of Fusan, May 14, 1880, Commodore Shufeldt 
begged the Japanese consul, who visited the ship, to forward his 
papers to Seoul. The consul complied, but, unfortunately, neither 
the interpreters nor the governor of Tong-nai — preferring present 



THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 429 

pay and comfort to possible future benefit — would have anything to 
do with such dangerous business. Japanese rumor asserts that 
the Coreans seeing the letter addressed on the outside to "the 
King of Corea," declined to receive it, partly because their sover- 
eign was " not King of Korai " but " King of Cho-sen." Under the 
circumstances, the American could do nothing more than with- 
draw, which he did amid the usual salute from a Corean fort near 
by. A second visit being equally fruitless, the Ticonderoga again 
turned her stern toward " the last outstanding and irreconcilable 
scoffer among nations at western alliances," and her prow home- 
ward. 

The Corean embassy, failing in their attempts to have the Jap- 
anese go slowly, Hanabusa, the mikado's envoy at Seoul, now vigor- 
ously urged the opening of the third port, and, after much discus- 
sion, In-chiun,' twenty-five miles from Seoul, was selected ; in De- 
cember, 1880,> Hanabusa and his suite, crossing the frozen rivers, 
went thither, and selected the ground for the Japanese concession. 

The old questions upon which political parties in the hermit 
nation had formed themselves, now sank out of sight, and the new 
element of excitement was the all-absorbing question of breaking 
the seals of national seclusion. The "Civilization Party," or the 
Progressionists, were opposed to the Exclusionists, Port-closers, 
and Foreigner-haters. Heading the former or liberal party were 
the young king and queen, Bin Kenko, Bin Shoshoko, Hi Saiwo, 
and other high dignitaries, besides Kin Giokin and Jo Kohan, for- 
mer envoys to Japan. The leader of the Conservatives was the Tai- 
wen-kun, father of the king and late regent. The neutrals clus- 
tered around Kin Koshiu. 

Physically speaking, the Coreans see the sun rise over Japan 
and set over China, but morally, and in rhetoric, their sun of pros- 
perity has ever risen and set in China. Some proposed to buy all 
machinery, arms, and government material in China, and imitate 
her plans and policy, and conform to the advice of her statesmen. 
The other side urged the adoption of Japanese methods and mate- 
rials. The pro-Chinese gentry imitated the Peking mandarins in 



^ This fu city, called by the Japanese Ninsen, or Nii-gawa, was well known 
by the Japanese, as is shown on their maps of the sixteenth century. The 
name means Two Rivers. The rise and fall of the tides here is very great, 
sometimes amounting to a difference of twenty-nine feet ; and in winter the 
shore-water is frozen. Large vessels cannot anchor within a mile of the shore. 
The port Chi-mul-DO is at some distance from the city. 



430 COREA. 

jletails of dress, household decoration, and culture ; while all theii 
books conveying Western science must be read from Chinese trans- 
lations. The pro-Japanese Coreans had their houses furnished with 
Japanese articles, they read and studied Japanese literature and 
translations of European books, and when out of Corea the most 
radical among them wore coats and pantaloons. The long and hot 
disputes between the adherents of both parties seriously hampered 
the government, while precipitating a revolution in the national 
policy ; for serious debate in a despotic coimtry is a sign of awak- 
ening life. 

About this time, early in 1881, a remarkable document, com- 
posed by Kwo-in-ken, adviser to the Chinese Minister to Japan, had 
a lively effect upon the court of Seoul. It was entitled " Policy for 
Corea." It described the neighbors of Cho-sen, and pointed out 
her proper attitude to each of them. From Russia, devoted as she 
is to a policy of perpetual aggrandizement at the expense of other 
countries, and consumed by lust for land, Corea is in imminent 
danger. China, on the contrary, is Corea's natural aUy and friend, 
ever ready with aid in men and money ; both countries need each 
other, and their union should be as close as lips and teeth. For 
historical and geographical reasons, Corea and Japan should also be 
one in friendship, and thus guard against "Russia the ravenous." 
The next point treated is the necessity of an alliance between Corea 
and the United States, because the Americans are the natural 
friends of Asiatic nations. Pointing out the many advantages of 
securing the friendship of the Americans, and making a treaty 
with them first, the memorialist urges the Coreans to seize the 
golden opportunity at once. 

About the same time, li Hung Chang, China's liberal states- 
man, wrote a letter to a Corean gentleman, in which the advice to 
seek the friendship of China and the United States was strongly 
expressed, and a treaty with the Americans urged as a matter of 
national safety. Many, though not all, of the members of the em- 
bassies to Japan returned full of enthusiasm for Western civiliza- 
tion. It soon became evident that the king and many of his ad- 
visers were willing to make treaties. In Peking, the members of 
the embassy, before the winter of 1881 was over, began diplomatic 
flirtations with the American Legation. At that time, however, 
neither Minister J. B. AngeU, in Peking, nor John A. Bingham, 
in Tokio,. had any authority to make a treaty with Corea. While 
the way was thus made ready, the representations of Messrs. Bing- 



THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 431 

ham and Angell to the State Department at Washington impressed 
upon our Government the necessity of having a diplomatic agent 
near at hand to take advantage of the next opportunity. Hitherto 
the only avenue of entrance seemed through the Japanese good 
offices ; but the apparent v^rillingness of Coreans in Peking, the ex- 
perience of the Italians in the Vettor Pisani at Fusan and Port 
Lazareff, the advice of Chinese statesmen to Corea to have faith in 
the United States, and to open her ports to American commerce, 
convinced the American minister at Peking that China, rather than 
Japan, would furnish the better base of diplomatic operations for 
breaking down the Corean repulsive pohcy. 

The Government at Washington responded to the suggestion, 
and in the spring of 1881, Commodore Shufeldt was sent by the 
State Department to Peking as naval attache to the Legation, so as 
to be near the American Minister and be ready with his experi- 
ence, should a" further attempt "to bring together the strange 
States of the Extreme Sea " be made. 

Shortly after the presentation of Kwo-in-ken's memorial in 
Seoul, a party of thirty-four prominent men of the civilization 
party, led by Gio Inchiu and Kio Yeichoku, set out from Seoul to 
visit Japan and further study the problem of how far Western ideas 
were adapted to an oriental state. 

The proposition to open a port so near the capital to the Japa- 
nese, and to treat with the Americans, was not left unchallenged. 
The ultra-Confucianists, headed by Ni Mansun, stood ready to op- 
pose it with word and weapon. In swelling Corean rhetoric, this 
bigoted patriot from Chung-chong proved to his own satisfaction 
that aU the nations except China and Corea were uncivilized, and 
that the presence of foreigners would pollute the holy land. Gath- 
ering an array of seven hundred of his followers, he dressed in 
mourning to show his grief, and with the figure of an axe on his 
shoulders, in token of risking his life by his act, he presented his 
memorial to the king, and sat for seven days in front of the royal 
palace. He demanded that In-chiiin should not be opened, the two 
Bin should be deposed, and all innovations should cease. 

The popular form of the dread of foreigners was shown in dele- 
gations of country people, who came into Seoul to forward petitions 
and protestations. Placards were posted on or near the palace 
gates, fuU of violent language, and prophesying the most woful 
results of Western blight and poison upon the country which had 
ever been the object of the special favor of the sprits. 



432 COREA. 

Another party of two thousand literary men, fanatical patriots, 
had assembled at Cho-rio to go up to Seoul to overawe the pro- 
gressive ministers, but were met by messengers from the court and 
turned back by the promise that the party about to visit Japan 
under royal patronage should be recalled. For a moment the 
king had thrown a sop to these cerberian zealots, whose three 
heads of demand would keep Cho-sen as inaccessible as Hades. 

The order came too late, the progressionists had left the shores, 
and were in Nagasaki. Thence to Ozaka, where some remained to 
study the arts and sciences ; the majority proceeded to Tokio to 
examine modern civilization in its manifold phases. Unlike Peter 
the Greatj some of these reformers began with themselves, cloth- 
ing mind and body with the nineteenth century. Dropping the 
garments of picturesque medisevalism, they put on the work- 
suit of buttoned coat and trousers and learned the value of minutes 
from American watches. The cutting off their badge of nationality 
— the top-knot— was accompanied with emotions very similar to 
those of bereavement by death. 

Gio Inchiu ' after his return from Japan was despatched on a 
mission to China, where his conference was chiefly with Li Hung 
Chang. He returned home by way of Fusan, December 29, 1881. 
He had now a good opportunity of judging the relative merits of 
Japan and China. His patriotic eye saw that the first need of 
Corean reform was in strengthening the army ; though the poverty 
of the country gave slight hope of speedy success. 

The results of this mission were soon apparent, for shortly 
after, eighty young men, of the average age of twenty, were sent 
to Tientsin, where they are now, 1882, diligently pursuing their 
studies ; some in the arsenal, learning the manufacture of fire- 
arms, others learning the English language. A returned Chinese 
student — one of the number lately recalled from New England — 
while severely sarcastic at the Corean government's "poor dis- 
crimination in selecting the country from which her students 
could profit most," added, " they possess a far better physique for 
the navy than any of our future imperial midshipmen." 

' In this and the following chapter the names of Corean noblemen have 
been given in their Japanese form, i.e.. Bin for Min, etc., but in the Supple- 
mentary Chapter according to Corean pronunciation. 



CHAPTER XLVm. 

THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 

The year 1882 opened ominously. A fire broke out in the royal 
palace in Seoul, on January 27tli, in which two buildings, nearly 
completed for the heir apparent, were burned down. The fire was 
at first believed to have political significance, and the tension of 
the public mincl was not relaxed until it was shown that the fire 
was the result of pure accident. 

The spirit of progress made advance, but discussion reached 
fever-heat in deciding whether the favor of Japan or China should 
be most sought, and which foreign nation, the United States, 
France, or England, should be admitted first to treaty rights. Bin, 
opposed to the arbitrary spirit of the Japanese, edged his argu- 
ment by proposing an alliance with foreigners in order to check- 
mate the designs of Japan. 

An event not unlooked for increased the power of the progres- 
sionists. One Kozaikai urged the plea of expulsion of foreigners in 
such intemperate language that he was accused of reproaching the 
sovereign. At the same time, a conspiracy against the life of the 
king, involving forty persons, was discovered, and the sword and 
torture came into play. Kozaikai was put to death, many of the 
conspirators were exiled, and the ringleaders were sentenced to 
be broken alive on the wheel, the revolutions of which tore off 
hands and feet in succession. Six of those doomed to death were 
spared, through the intercession of a minister, and one, the king's 
cousin, who delivered himself up, was pardoned by his sovereign on 
the ground of the prisoner's insanity. The Progressionists had 
now the upper hand, and early in the spring Gio Inchiu and Riosen 
left on a mission to Tientsin, to acquaint the Americans and Chinese 
with the information that the Corean government was ready to 
make treaties, and that the proper officer would be at In-chiun to 
sign the compact and complete the negotiations. 

Meanwhile the reforms in military affairs were begun with en- 
26 



434 COREA. 

ergy. Japanese officers, at the head of whom was Lieutenant 
Horimoto, drilled picked men in Seoul, with creditable success, in 
spite of their unwieldy hats and costume, and the jeers of the anti- 
foreign people, in public as well as in private. Substantial proof 
of the adoption of Japan's military system was shown in an order 
sent to Tokio for a few hundred Snider rifles with equipments — 
the weapon of the British army — and one for twenty thousand of 
the rifles made at the Japanese arsenal in Tokio, which, combining 
the merits of the best-known military fire-arm, contained improve- 
ments invented and patented by Colonel Murata, of the mikado'a 
army. Two Corean notables later again visited Japan in April of 
this year, and were annoyed to find a report spread abroad in Na- 
gasaki that they had come to raise a money loan. Nevertheless, 
they proceeded to Kioto and Tokio. Some of their suite went into 
the printing-offices and sUk-worm breeding establishments to 
learn these arts, while type, presses, and printing material were 
ordered for use at home. 

Affairs had so shaped themselves that even to outsiders it be- 
came evident that the Corean apple was ripe even to falling. By 
March 4th it was known at the American Legation in Peking that 
" Barkis was willin'/' while to the Japanese envoy then in Tokio 
it became certain that, unless he made all haste to In-chiiin, the 
American commodore would have his treaty signed and be ofi 
without even waiting for a call. Hastily bidding his friends 
good-by, he left in the Japanese steamer, Iwaki Kuan, and ar- 
rived in the harbor just one hour before the American corvette 
Swatara arrived with Commodore Shufeldt on board. With the 
Swatara were three Chinese men-of-war, one of them an iron- 
clad. 

The American diplomatic agent, Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, 
having spent nearly a year in China, surmounting difficulties that 
few will know of until the full history of the American treaty with 
Corea is written, arrived in the Swatara off Chimulpo, May 7th. Ac- 
companied by three officers. Commodore Shufeldt went six miles into 
the interior to the office of the Corean magistrate to formulate the 
treaty. Though surrounded every moment by curious crowds, no 
disrespect was shown in any way. Two days afterward, the treaty 
document was signed on a point of land in a temporary pavilion 
opposite the ship. Thus, in the most modest manner the negotia- 
tions were concluded, and a treaty with the United States was, after 
repeated failures, secured by the gallant officer who, by this act 



THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 435 

of successful diplomacy, closed a long and brilliant professional 
career.' 

Both on the American and Corean side the results had been 
brought about only after severe toil. The Corean nobleman Bin, 
a cousin of the queen, had so labored in Seoul night and day to 
commit the government to the policy of making treaties with the 
Americans, that, when the messengers had been despatched with 
the order for Commodore Shufeldt to appear in Imperatrice Gulf, 
he fell ill, and was unable to appear at In-chiun. The American 
envoy was so worn out with anxiety and toil by his efibrts to have 
Corea opened under Chinese auspices, that on landing at San Fran- 
cisco, he retired to the naval hospital at Mare's Island to recover 
his exhausted strength. 

Four days after the signing of the American and Chinese treaties, 
the Corean capital was full of mirth and gayety, on account of a 
wedding in the royal family. The crown prince, a lad of nine years 
old, was wedded to the daughter of Jun, a nobleman of high rank, 
who had postponed a visit to Japan until the nuptials were accom- 
plished. A brilliant procession in the streets of Seoul marked the 
event, and for a moment the excitement concerning foreigners was 
forgotten. None foresaw the bloody ending of this honeymoon so 
happily begun. 

The British minister at Tokio, Sir Harry Parkes, who had left no 
stone unturned to secure a personal interview with the ambassador 

1 Commodore R. W. Shufeldt was born in Dutchess County, New York, in 
1822, and entered the navy in 1839, serving ten years on foreign stations and 
in the coast survey. One cruise to the west coast of Africa interested him in 
the negro colony of Liberia, in which he has ever since felt concern. From 
1850 to 1860, our navy being in a languishing state, he was engaged in the 
mercantile marine service, and in organizing a transit route across the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec. In 1860 an article of his on the slave trade between the Is- 
land of Cuba and the coast of Africa, drew the attention of the government to 
him, and led to his appointment of Consul-General at Havana. The slave-trade 
was soon effectually broken up, and through the trying period of the first half 
of the civil war, he was occupied in his civil duties, at one time going to Mex- 
ico on a confideiitial mission to President Juarez, passing unrecognized through 
the French lines. He was on blockade duty during the last two years of the 
civil war. In 1865 he went to China, as flag-captain of the Hartford, and com- 
manding the Wachusett visited Corea. In 1870 he organized a party for the 
survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, his report being made the basis of Cap- 
tain Eads' ship-railway project. The official history of the semi-diplomatic 
cruise of the Ticonderoga round the world (1878-1880) has been written, but 
has not yet been published. 



436 COREA. 

in 1876, and, since that time, British trade with Corea, was still on 
the alert. He at once ordered Admiral Willes to proceed to In- 
chiiin. Leaving his large fleet in Japanese waters, Admiral Willes 
left Nagasaki in the Yigilant, May 27th, while Mr. William G. As- 
ton, the accomplished linguist and Corean scholar, received orders 
to follow. The Admiral's business was soon despatched, a treaty- 
was made, and his return to Yokohama was accomplished June 14th, 
the U. S. steamship Ashuelot saluting him on his arrival. The French 
and Germans were the next to improve the long-awaited opportunity. 
The German admiral left Japan in the man-of-war Stosch, on May 
31st, while a vessel of the French navy entered the port of In- 
chiun June 5th. There had thus appeared in this sequestered nook of 
creation, within a few days, two American, three British, one French, 
one Japanese, and five Chinese armed vessels. All of them, except 
the French, had left by June 8th, to the great relief of the country 
folks and old men and women, many of whom, with the children, 
had fled to the hills when the big guns began to waste their powder 
in salutes, to the detriment of the thatched roofs of the houses. 

China lost no time in taking advantage of the position secured 
her by treaty. No vexatious delays of ratification troubled her. 
Everything had been arranged beforehand with the Coreans, so 
that, on the return of the vessels from In-chiiin, officers were de- 
spatched to Shanghae to sail for Gensan and Fusan, and select land 
for public buildings. 

During the present year the Japanese legation in Seoul has 
numbered about forty persons, including secretaries, interpreters, 
mihtary officers, policemen, students, and servants. Notwith- 
standing their precarious situation, amid the turbulent elements at 
work around them, they seemed to enjoy the spectacle before their 
eyes of a repetition of the history of their own country after 
Perry's arrival in 1853. The young men of the legation visited the 
historic sites near the capital, enjoyed the mountain and river 
scenery, and studied the Corean language and literature. At first 
the common people believed that their visitors sucked the blood of 
the children lured away by them ; and so carefully guarded their 
little ones. By and by, however, as more liberty was afforded 
them, the occasional pelting with vegetables and pebbles became 
less frequent, and even the women would talk with them. 

The light-hearted Japanese seemed to suspect no imminent dan- 
ger, although the old fanatic and tyrant Tai-wen Kun was still alive 
and plotting. To insure perfect secrecy for his plans, it is said 



THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 437 

that he employed two or three mutes to wait on him, and act as 
his messengers. He was the centre of all the elements hostile to 
innovation, and being a man of unusual ability, was possessed of 
immense influence. The populace of Seoul and of the country had 
been taught to believe that " the Japanese were inebriated with 
the manners of Christian nations, and were enchanted by the West- 
em devils, and that as a Europeanized country of the devil was 
being created in their immediate neighborhood, they must expel 
the barbarians." Every means had been used to inflame the peo- 
ple against foreigners. Stone monuments had been set up on the 
high roads and market-places which bore this inscription — "The 
Western barbarians will come to invade our soil, there are but two 
alternatives for Cho-sen ; to go to war, or to maintain peace. To 
submit peacefully means to sell the country ; therefore we Coreans 
must resort to arms." Many thousands of these inscribed stones 
had been set up, and an edict had been issued, commanding the 
ink-makers to inscribe their sticks of ink with this inflammatory 
declaration. When nobles of high rank would advocate progres- 
sive views, Tai-wen Kun would sneeringly dare them to remove 
these anti-foreign monuments. 

During the nine years of his nominal retirement from office, 
from 1873 to 1882, this bigoted Confucianist, who refused to know 
anything of the outer world, bided his time and waited his oppor- 
tunity, which came during the summer of the present year. Just 
when the populace was most excited over the near presence of the 
Americans and other foreigners at In-chiiin, the usual rainfall was 
withheld, the wells dried up, and in the consequent drouth, the 
rice crop was threatened with total failure. The diviners, sorcer 
ers, and anti-foreign party took advantage of the situation to play 
on the fears of the superstitious people. The spirits, displeased at 
the intrusion of the Western devils, were angry and were cursing 
the land. At the same time the soldiery of the capital were dis- 
affected, as some say on account of arrearages of wages, or as> 
others aver, because the old warriors of the bow and arrow hated 
the Japacese method of drilling as a foreign innovation insulting 
to the gods. A more probable reason is that on account of the 
failure of the rice-harvest, the soldiers' rations were cut down, and 
they were deprived of this choice cereal for food. Among the first 
Corean officers killed was the superintendent of the rice store- 
houses, which were pillaged by the hungry mob. 

On July 23d, while the king was out in the open air praying 



438 ~^ COREA. 

for rain, a mob of sympathizers with Tai-wen Kun attempted to 
seize his person. The king escaped to the castle. According to 
one account, some mischief-maker then started the report in the city 
that the Japanese had attacked the royal castle, and had seized the 
king and queen, and that the prime minister with the palace-guards 
in vainly endeavoring to beat back the assailants, had been defeated : 
and that every Corean should take up arms. Forthwith the mob 
rushed with frantic violence upon the legation, murdering the 
Japanese policemen and students whom they met in the streets 
and the Japanese military instructors in the barracks. Not satisfied 
with this, the rioters, numbering 4,000 men, attacked and destroyed 
the houses of the ministers favoring foreign intercourse. Before 
quiet was restored, the queen, Min, the heir apparent and his wife, 
the chief ministers of the government, Min Thai Ho and Min 
Yong Ik, were, as was supposed, murdered ; but all these emerged 
alive. Many of the Mins and seven Japanese were killed. 

The Japanese, by their own account, had suspected no danger 
u^til the day of the riot, when they noticed great excitement among 
the people, and that crowds were assembling and rushing to and fro. 
They sent out a policeman to inquire into the nature of the dis- 
turbance, and at two o'clock p.m. they learned from a native that the 
mob would attack the legation. Word was also sent to the Japanese 
by the Corean officer in charge of the drill-ground where the troops 
were trained by Lieutenant Horimoto, saying that the troops drilled 
in Japanese tactics had been attacked, and the legation would 
next be in danger. Hanabusa and his suite then arranged a plan 
of defence. While thus engaged, a Corean employed at the lega- 
tion informed them that the mob had destroyed the houses of 
the two ministers Bin, and were attacking three Japanese stu- 
dents. Three policemen well armed then left to succor the students, 
but nothing was heard from either policemen or students again. 
A Corean officer now appeared and warned the Japanese to escape 
to the hill back of the legation ; and being requested by Hanabusa 
to ask the government for soldiers, he left on this errand. At 5.50 
P.M. the mob reached the legation, and raising a imited yell, fired 
volleys of bullets, arrows, and big stones at the legation, but dared 
not enter the gate to face the revolvers of the poHcemen. In hurhng 
stones the ruffians showed remarkable skill. The mob set on fire a 
house, near by, and in the rising wind — then boding a coming storm 
— two out-houses of the legation were burned, the police shoot- 
ing down the incendiaries when they could see them. It was now 



THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 439 

about ten o'clock, and the ruffians having thrown up barricades to 
hem in their victims and to shield their cowardly carcases while 
shooting, the Japanese fired the remaining buildings, and armed 
only with swords and pistols, formed themselves into a circle, 
charged the mob, and cut their way through to the house of the 
chief magistrate, which they found empty. Finding no one in the 
official residence, the}^ marched to the southern gate of the royal 
castle. Instead of opening it, the soldiers on the wall above pelted 
them with stones. 

Hanabusa now resolved to cross the river with his party and 
make his way to.In-chiun. Turning their backs on the flames, they 
arrived at the river and, on the ferryman refusing to convey them 
across, they seized the boat and crossed safely to the other side. 
It was now past midnight and the rain began to fall heavily, and 
with occasional thunderstorms continued to pour down all night. 
The refugees plunged on through the darkness, often losing their 
way, but next day at ten o'clock, they procured some raw barley to 
eat, and through the pelting rain pushed on, reaching In-chiiin at 
3 P.M. The governor received them kindly and supplied food and 
dry clothing. The Japanese officers slept in the official residence, 
and the servants, police, and others in a guard-house about fifteen 
yards distant. The governor posted his own sentinels to watch so 
that the Japanese could get some rest. In a few minutes the tired 
men were sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. 

About five o'clock, Hanabusa and his officers were suddenly 
awakened by the shouting of a mob outside ; and in a moment more 
a Japanese entered covered with blood, and with a drawn sword in 
his hand with which he had cut his way. The mob had attacked 
them while they were asleep, and the soldiers of the local garrison 
were joining the rioters, firing from behind fences. All the Jap- 
anese now hurried on their clothes, and charging a body of about 
forty soldiers, armed with swords and spears, who were blocking the 
gateway, made for Chi-mul-po seaport, having lost three killed and 
two missing. 

Meeting two Japanese on horseback from the port, who reported 
that the road was free from ambuscades, they put the wounded man 
on one horse, and by another despatched one of their number to 
hasten forward and have a boat ready. They reached Chi-mul-po, 
the port, about seven o'clock, and immediately crossed over to Koze 
Island for safety. About midnight, having procured a junk, they 
put to sea, toward Nanyo Bay, where they knew the British gunboat 



440 COREA. 

Flying Fish was then on survey. Encountering a southerly wind, 
they made little or no progress, and on the 26th a dense fog set 
in ; but at 11.30 a.m., it cleared up and the welcome sight of a 
three-masted vessel greeted their eyes. Hoisting the flag of Japan, 
they saw their signal answered, and soon the party of twenty-six 
half-naked, hungry, and cold refugees were on board the ship, where 
kindest treatment awaited them. That night at ten o'clock the 
Flying Fish sailed for Nagasaki. On August 3d a religious service 
in memory of their slain comrades was held by the survivors, at 
Shimonoseki. " The deep silence was only broken by the sobbing 
of the audience, overcome by deep s;yTiipathy for the murdered 
men." On the 8th Hanabusa had an audience with the mikado in 
Tokio. 

Without hesitation, the Japanese government ordered the army 
to assemble at Shinonoseki and Tsushima, with naval forces to co- 
operate. Hanabusa and his suite were sent back, escorted by a mili- 
tary force. He re-entered Seoul, August 16th, and was received 
with courtesy. A fleet of Chinese war-vessels with a force of four 
thousand troops was also at hand. Apparently everything was under 
the control of Tai-wen Kun, who professed to be friendly to foreign- 
ers, and to ascribe the recent riot to a sudden uprising of the un- 
paid soldiery, which the government had not force at hand to sup- 
press. Two Corean officers coming on board the Flying Fish, 
August 10th, informed Captain Hoskyn that the soldiery, dissatiS' 
fled with the unfair treatment of their superiors, had incited the 
peasantry to rebellion ; that by orders of Tai-wen Kun, who bit- 
terly regretted the recent outrages, the dead Japanese had been 
honorably buried ; that the old regent while usurping the royal 
power, had professed a total change of views and was in favor of a 
progressive policy. 

At his audience with the king, August 20th, Hanabusa presented 
the demands of his government. These were nominally agreed to, 
but several days passing without satisfactory action, Hanabusa hav- 
ing exhausted remonstrance and argument, left Seoul August 
25th and returned to his ship. This unexpected move — a menace 
of war — brought the usurper to terms. On receipt of Tai-wen 
Kun's apologies, the Japanese envoy returned to the capital August 
30th and full agreement was given to the demands of Japan, at 
which time it would appear, Tai-wen Kun, forcibly kidnapped 
by the envoy of China, had begun his travels into the country of 
Confucius. 



THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 441 

The following telegram to the Neiv York Tribune of October 2d, 
summarizes the news from Yokohama up to September 13tli : 

Tlie Corean Government pledged itself to tlie following conditions : To ar- 
rest the insurgents within twenty days and inflict due punishment upon them, 
Japanese delegates to be present at the trial ; to bury properly the bodies of 
those murdered and pay 50,000 yen (dollars) to their families; to pay Japan 
500,000 yen as indemnity for expenditure, etc., in five yearly instalments ; to 
allow Japanese troops in Seoul for the protection of the legation, and to pro- 
vide proper accommodations for them ; to send an apology by a special em- 
bassy to Japan ; to extend gradually privileges to the Japanese residents and 
traders ; to afford proper conveniences for travel throughout Corea for the 
Japanese Government officials. 

While this was going on the Chinese envoy, who had remained inactive 
with his escort until August 35th, suddenly called up the full body of his 
troops, about three or four thousand, to the capital. What degree of pressure 
he may have exercised is not yet known, but it is certain that the chief rebel 
and assassin, the Tai-wen Kun, was taken on board a Chinese ship and carried 
to Tien-tsin. It is alleged that his departure was by no means voluntary, and 
that some physical effort was required to get him ashore on arriving at his des- 
tination. Whatever was the object of this proceeding, it must have been dic- 
tated by Li Hung Chang, the Chinese Viceroy at Tien-tsin, who seems to 
have quite abandoned his demeanor of calm stolidity during these active Co- 
rean transactions. It is declared by one Chinese party that the only purpose 
was to rescue the Tai-wen Kun from the dangers that threatened him, and by 
another that the intent was still to maintain the theory of sovereign control 
over Corea's rulers, which Li Hung Chang has been straining for throughout. 

During the recent prospect of trouble with Corea, the Japanese Govern- 
ment received offers of military service from twenty thousand volunteers, and 
of money gifts to the value of 200,000 yen. 

At this stage of affairs, when Corea ceases to be a "hermit na- 
tion," and stands in the glare of the world's attention, we bring 
our imperfect story to a close. The pivot of the future history of 
Eastern Asia is Corea. On her soil will be decided the problem of 
supremacy, by the jealous rivals China, Japan, and Kussia. The 
sudden assumption of self-imposed tutelary duties by China proves 
her lively interest in the little country, which has been called both 
"her right arm of defense," and "her gloved hand" — the one to 
force back the ravenous Muscovite, the other to warn off the ambi- 
tious Japanese. Whether the Middle Kingdom has deliberately 
chosen the Land of Morning Calm to affront and humiliate " the 
neighbor- disturbing nation," that twice humbled her pride in the 
fairest islands of the sea — Formosa and Eiu Kiu — the events of 
the not distant future will soon determine. Whether the hoary em* 



442 COREA. 

pire shall come in collision with the young northern giant, and the 
dragon and the bear tear each other in the slime of war in Corean 
valleys, may be a question the solution of which is not far off. We 
trust that amid all dangers, the integrity of the little kingdom may 
be preserved ; but whatever be the issue upon the map of the world, 
let us hope that paganism, bigotry, and superstition in Corea, and 
in all Asia, may disappear ; and that in their places, the religion of 
Jesus, science, education, and human brotherhood may find an 
abiding dwelling-place. 



CHAPTEE XLIX. 
THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 

For nearly a quarter of a century Corea, the once hermit nation, 
has been opened to intercourse with the world, and the student 
has had facilities for understanding the country and people and 
realizing what are the social and political problems of humanity 
in the peninsula. 

As in most old Asiatic states, so in Corea, there is an almost 
total absence of an intelligent middle class, which in the West is 
the characteristic of progressive nations. In the Land of Morn- 
ing Eadiance there is a governing minority consisting of about 
one-tenth of the whole population. These, the Yangban (civil and 
military), living in ancient privilege and prerogative and virt- 
ually paying no taxes or tolls, prey upon the common people. 
The great bulk, that is, nine-tenths of the population, is agricult- 
ural and is gathered in hamlets and villages. 

The typical Corean tills the soil, in which occupation, after ages 
of unprogressive routine, he has come to his present mental status. 
There is not even a distinct manufacturing class in Corea, for 
nearly all industry is still in the cottage. The few articles needed 
by the laborer for the floor, the wall, and the kitchen are made 
by the farmer during his winter hours, and his women-folk weave 
and make up the clothing. The average carpenter, blacksmith, 
and stone mason is simply a laborer on the land with added skill 
in a special line. Even the fisherman cultivates the soil. The 
village schoolmaster is a son of the farmer of the better class. 
There are groups of population-office-holders and their retainers 
and hangers-on, shopkeepers and traders, butchers, porters, miners. 
Junk-sailors, and innkeepers, sorcerers, gamblers, and fortune-tell- 
ers, but, all told, the number of men who do not live on the soil 
form but a decimal fraction in the national household. 

For these compelling reasons the problems of internal govern- 

443 



444 COKEA. 

ment relate almost wholly to the woe or weal of the tillers of the 
soil. During the summer of six months the average Corean 
stands bare-legged in the mud, planting or cultivating grain. His 
wife and children, especially his daughters, help him in the rais- 
ing of rice, barley, wheat, and beans, and in the harvesting and 
securing of the final products. During the four cold months of 
the year he is at work gathering fuel or making mats, sandals, 
screens, or thatch. During the first and seventh moons he enjoys 
an easy time, doing little or nothing, and these two months are 
like holiday. The average income of a Corean farmer is about 
thirty dollars a year. The average house in Corea consists only 
of mud, straw, twine, and wood, above a foundation of earth faced 
with stone and worth but a few dollars. The price of waste land 
is from one to five dollars an acre, and of cultivated fertile soil 
from ten to sixty dollars an acre. The lots are poorly marked and 
boundary quarrels are incessant. The Corean farmer knows little 
about scientific irrigation or variety in fertilizers, dried grass being 
his chief manure. The mountains are greatly denuded of their 
forests, and alternate droughts and floods work awful disasters. 
With a naturally good soil and fine climate, agriculture is yet in 
a backward condition. It is said that the Japanese in the six- 
teenth century taught the Coreans the cultivation of rice, millions 
of bushels of which, under stimulus from the same source, they 
are now able to export annually. In recent years the Japanese 
have attempted to secure control of the waste lands of Corea so 
as to develop them, not only for the production of cereals, vege- 
table wax, paper fibre, and stuff for weaving, but also for cotton 
to supply the demands of the Osaka mills. Their demands, pressed 
too severely in July, 1904, were the cause of vigorous native pro- 
test in great public meetings. 

The Corean rustic is, as a rule, illiterate. Probably only about 
four out of ten males of the farming class can read either Chinese 
or Corean, but counting in the women it is estimated that about 
eighty-five per cent of the people can neither read nor write, 
though the percentage varies greatly with the locality. As a gen- 
eral thing, there is more acquaintance with books and writing in 
the southern than in the northern provinces. It is pitiful to find 
in the Budget for 1904 that but $27,718 are appropriated for 
schools outside of Seoul, the latter receiving $135,074, of which 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA- 445 

the sum of $44,220 goes to foreign teachers in the English, French, 
German, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese language schools. Al- 
though since 1895 the old civil-service examinations have been 
abolished and there has been a Department of Education, it has 
thus far had little influence upon the country at large. In the 
central office in 1904, out of $28,617 appropriated, $19,857 went 
for salaries and office expenses, $6,500 being for text-book printing. 

The Corean farmer is simple in his dress, food, and habits. He 
does not journey far from home. Although the high-roads are 
lively with travellers, one sees not the farmer but the literati, the 
traders, and the porters. Few country folks ever visit the large 
cities, and in regions near the capital few have seen Seoul. Cus- 
tom is the eternal law to the rustic, who is patient, bearing extor- 
tion until flesh and blood can stand it no longer, when he rises 
in revolt against his oppressor. Yet it is against the bad man, 
not the system itself, that he protests. After the obnoxious officer 
has been recalled or driven away and temporary relief is obtained, 
the Corean farmer settles down into a good tax-paying subject as 
of yore, and unless something like the Tong Hak movement stirs 
him, his wheel of life quickly slips again into the rut of routine. 
As long as he can get enough to eat he is content. When oppres- 
sion and robbery are joined to Nature's niggardliness, he and his 
comrades are transformed into a howling mob of starving mal- 
contents, ready for bloody vengeance. 

The son of the soil is superstitious to the last degree. He 
lives in constant terror of the demons and spirits that overpopulate 
earth, air, and water, for he is without the protection that the cer- 
tainties of science or the strength of pure religion furnishes. No 
unifying, uplifting, and inspiring knowledge of one God is his. 
His thatched hut or mud-floored hovel is a museum of fetiches. 
Often he will give the best fruits of the fields to what seems to 
an alien a mass of straw or rags. The sorceress thrives like a 
fat parasite on the farmer, getting well paid for her songs, dances, 
incantations, and presence at the feasts. Yet the Corean enjoys 
the religious festivals. He is at least just to himself, while pro- 
fessing generosity to the spirits. He honors the gods but ulti- 
mately puts the well-cooked offerings far from them — even into 
his own interior; for above all things, the worshipper is orthodox 
in his belief in a well-filled stomach. 



446 COREA. 

With such a people, both Confucianism and Buddhism become 
the grossest of superstitions. The Corean's face is toward the 
past. He invokes and worships the dead, and to him the graveyard 
contains more than the future can bring him. Besides the extor- 
tions of the nobles, officials, and other parasitic or predatory 
classes, the expense of offerings to his dead ancestors amounts to 
many millions of dollars a year, far exceeding in their total the 
national revenue. In Seoul alone there are three thousand sor- 
ceresses, each earning at least $7.50 a month. The farmer is poor, 
but he is hospitable and liberal. He has untold reverence for 
learning and for rank, he loves flowers and beautiful scenery, but 
he is stupid in the presence of an innovation. His area of vision 
is bounded by the hills within the circle of which he was bom. His 
chief recreation is in going to market, for, generally speaking, there 
are few shops in the peninsula, but there is a market every five or 
six days, where the natives exchange their products and their 
opinions. According to the state of weather conditions, the native 
is happy or suffers, a large harvest making all smile, a scant crop 
causing famine and hunger and the outbreak of banditti and 
rapine. Besides buying and selling, huckstering and gossiping, 
there are at the markets plenty of fighting and drunkenness as 
diversions. Going out for wool the farmer frequently comes home 
shorn, but he has had his fun, or rather a variation of deadly 
monotony. Furthermore, he is fond of a joke and loves to chaff 
his fellows. 

As the country itself is governed out of the graveyard, and 
sovereign, court, and people are driven by imaginary demons and 
spirits, so the farmers, both as individuals, as families, and as 
clans, guard jealously and in fear the ancestral mounds with 
superstitious reverence. Hence one large element of village excite- 
ment is in quarrelling and fighting over graves. About fifty per 
cent of the cases brought before the country magistrates are said 
to be connected with these grave fights. These bitter struggles 
involve whole clans and result in bloodshed and loss of life. Even 
the dead are not allowed to Test in peace. The digging up of 
corpses and the tumbling of them beyond the limits in dispute is 
a common occurrence. This ghoulish activity is varied by an occa- 
sional abduction of widows or by other infractions of the law. 
Another large element of anxiety to the farmer is the protection 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 447 

of the water supply for his rice-swamp. The damming of the 
stream above or the draining off of the water below may ruin his 
crop. The breaking of the mud boundaries, and the stealing of 
water from a neighbor's field is mirrored in proverbs and folk- 
lore. It is sufficiently habitual to furnish a plentiful supply of 
pretexts for quarrels and fighting. 

There are four classes of agriculturists. The lowest tiller of 
the soil is a serf, owning no land, working by the day or contract, 
and virtually bound to the glebe. The men of the next class, 
though owning no lands, work the farms of others on shares. 
These farm-hands and farm-tenants make up the great mass of 
the Corean people. They live in thatched mud huts, with enough 
plain food to keep them alive and often fat, but with scanty 
change of garments and few or no comforts of life. They are 
occupied during the working months from daybreak to twilight 
in unremitting toil. The third class consists of the small owners 
with possessions worth from five hundred to five thousand dollars 
and numbering three per cent of the farming population. In the 
fourth or highest class are the landed proprietors, the aristocracy 
of the land, the richest member being worth as much as four or 
five million dollars, with an annual income of at least a quarter 
of a million. Insignificant in numbers, they are mighty in power, 
for it is these great landowners who rule the realm, and most of 
them live in Seoul. 

To the great mass of the people in Corea there is no motive 
for much industry beyond danger of starvation, and but little 
incentive to enterprise. Under old normal conditions now being 
slowly ameliorated, the official, the yangban, and the landed aris- 
tocracy, in a word, the predatory classes, seize upon the common 
man's earnings and accumulations, so that it seems to him useless 
and even foolish to work for more than enough to support life, 
while as for the " civilization nonsense," does it not mean more 
taxation? On the 13th of November, 1902, the announcement 
was made of the increase in land tax from $10 per measure of 
ground to $16 per measure. So argues the average man in Corea, 
the land long ruled by real oppressors and imaginary demons. 

The researches of scholars have also revealed the actual eco- 
nomic conditions of the nation in the days of hermitage. Old Corea 
was not, as in feudal Japan, straitened in its production of food. 



448 COREA. 

In the island empire only about one-twelfth of the soil was or 
conld be cultivated. Hence Japan was rigidly limited in her food- 
producing area, so that the population, besides being kept down 
through such natural cheeks as famine, pestilence, storm and 
flood, was further diminished to fit the food supply by such arti- 
ficial means as sumptuary laws, licensed prostitution, infanticide, 
cruel punishments, and frequent decapitation. In Corea, also, 
where the fertile earth, though formed to be inhabited and abundant 
in area of plain, and valley, was neither properly replenished nor 
subdued, many checks upon population existed. Local famines 
were frequent and often long continued, and neither religion nor 
the means of transportation furnished the means of saving life to 
any large amount. Artificial checks on too rapid multiplication 
of humanity operated powerfully. The lesser care and kindness 
given to female children resulted in a heavy death-rate as compared 
with that of the boys, the cruel punishments and frequent torture 
and decapitation and the lack of incentive to industry all wrought 
together to make both the land and the human life on it of com- 
paratively slight value. 

The whole situation was changed when Corea ceased to be a 
hermit land and began to be fertilized by foreign commerce and 
ideas. Confronted by new methods of trade, science, and religion, 
the thinking native was summoned to thought and action. Into 
the Corean mind, long held in bondage by Confucianism, which 
degrades woman and narrows man's intellect, the universal religion 
entered to compel the Corean man to think of other lands and 
people besides his own, to search his own heart, to attempt to make 
himself and his neighbors better, and to take a new outlook on the 
universe. The new doctrines delivered believers from the paralyz- 
ing thrall of demons and evil spirits, from ancestor worship, and 
from the sceptre held by the hand rising out of the grave. Into 
the Corea clamped as in iron bands by false economic notions 
entered the spirit of free competition. Into a land that knew 
no such thing as a foreign market the railway brings an eager pur- 
chaser to the farmer's door, and by carrying his goods to the sea- 
ports it enables him to give to and receive manifold benefits from 
the world at large. 

Already, through the energy of the canny islanders from the 
east, the crops in Corea have quadrupled, though under native 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 449 

mismanagement this does^not necessarily mean immediate benefit 
to the man on the soil, but rather to the official class, or to the land- 
holder in the capital. It has been computed that the production 
of sixty million bushels of grain have thus been developed in Corea 
through the Japanese demand. Between the feverish enterprise of 
the Japanese on the one side and the tireless thrift of the Chinese 
on the other, "the good old days^^ of primitive routine are gone 
forever. Corea has 4,500,000 acres under cultivation, or about 
eight and a half per cent of her 82,000 square miles of area, so 
that 3,500,000 available acres await the plough. From her arable 
soil six millions more of population might easily find subsistence, 
and nearly ten millions of dollars of crops could be raised. The 
peninsula needs in every great valley the railway, which "quad- 
ruples the valley of every foot of land within twenty miles of its 
line.'^ The line from Fusan to Seoul has already raised the value 
of town property in elect places hundreds of per cent and meas- 
urably all along between the terminals. This railway was begun 
in August, 1901, but though the work slackened for lack of capital, 
by December 1, 1903, thirty-one miles at either end had been built. 
The outbreak of the war with Eussia revealed its military value 
and promise was at once given that by Japanese Government aid 
it would be completed with its thirty-one tunnels and 20,500 feet 
of bridges by the end of 1904. This Fusan- Seoul railway, 287 
miles long, will traverse four provinces in the richest part of 
Corea, wherein are seven-tenths of all the houses and five-sevenths 
of all the cultivated area in the empire. Here also are the sites 
of the great fairs held six times monthly, the thirty-nine stations 
of the road being located at or near these places of trade, the 
total business of which amounts to over sixty-five per cent of the 
internal trade of the empire. 

The Corean social and political system, sufficiently weak in 
hermit days, has shown itself unable to withstand the repeated 
shock of attack by eager and covetous foreigners, nor will it ever 
be able, even in a measure, to defend itself against the fierce and 
unrelenting greed of the strong nations intrenched upon its soil, 
except by complete reorganization. Both the outward forms and 
the inward spirit must change if the Coreans are to preserve their 
national identity. The nation has been the bone of contention 
between jealous and greedy rivals. One foreign government by 



450 COREA. 

crafty diplomacy secures the right of cutting timber valued at 
millions of dollars, another gets mining concessions, others propose 
this or that industry or supposed line of production which depleted 
the treasury. The impoverished kingdom has not only wasted 
many millions of treasure in foolish enterprises, but is deprived 
of its natural assets in timber, metals, fisheries, and industries. 

The problem of bringing Corea into harmony with her modern 
environment is only in some features like that of Japan, for there 
have been wanting in the peninsula what was so effective in Japan's 
case. In the island empire, the long previous preparation by 
means of the infiltration of Western ideas during two centuries of 
communication with Europe through the Dutch merchants, the 
researches of her own scholars furnishing inspiration from their 
national history, the exercise during many generations of true 
patriotism and self-sacrifice for the public good prepared the 
island nation to cope with new conditions and situations. In the 
clash with the West, Japan came out victor. Corea has no samurai. 
She lacks what Japan has always had — a cultured body of men, 
superbly trained in both mind and body, the soldier and scholar 
in one, who held to a high ideal of loyalty, patriotism, and sacri- 
fice for country. The island samurai enjoying the same prerogative 
and privilege as the Corean yangban (civil and military) not only 
abolished feudalism, but after giving up their hereditary pensions 
and privileges, joined the productive classes, while at the same 
time the Japanese merchants and mechanics were raised in the 
social scale, the pariahs given citizenship, and then all lines of 
promotion opened to all in the army, navy, schools, courts, and 
civil service. The fertilizing streams of foreign commerce, the 
inspiration that comes from brotherhood with other nations, and 
above all, the power brought to Nippon through the noble labors 
and object lessons of the Christian missionaries, enabled the 
Japanese to take equal place in the world with the nations of the 
West. Corea, on the contrary, by still allowing the existence of 
predatory classes — nobles, officials, and great landowners — by de- 
nying her people education, by being given to superstition from 
palace to hut and from sovereign to serf, remains still in weakness 
and poverty. What Corea above all needs, is that the lazy yang- 
ban cut their long finger-nails and get to work. 

Yet dark as is the situation, it is not without hope. Slowly 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 451 

and painfully the Coreans are learning that no nation is bom in 
a day. Under the training of Christian teachers, a generation 
with new motives to action and new mental horizons, and fed with 
food to sustain the spirit, is coming on. Christianity is, with a 
remnant at least, making headway against the vices so common to 
this mild-mannered nation — skill in lying, stealing, gambling, 
drunkenness, and the social evil. 

For ages and until Japan humbled China in 1894, Corea was 
so thoroughly and in all things the vassal and pupil of the Middle 
Kingdom, from which most of the elements of her civilization had 
been borrowed, that in the tributary kingdom there could be no 
patriotism in its highest sense, nor could political parties and 
cliques have any reason for existence except as they were con- 
cerned with aims that ended in selfishness. With the people in 
general, there was only anxiety to pay taxes, win the favor of the 
local magistrate, and escape the clutches of the law. With mas- 
ters and rulers, there was ever pitiful fear of the great country 
China, and, under Confucianism, a desire to keep things as they 
were, mixed with impotent dread of change. Of pure love of coun- 
try, of willingness to make sacrifices for their native land — that 
is almost a new thought as yet nourished by a few far-seeing 
patriots. In the evolution of the Corean, social and psychic, his 
present ethical stage is not beyond that of the group, clan, or 
neighborhood. It has not yet reached the individual. The major- 
ity of the people have that kind of patriotism which means the 
instinctive desire to preserve national identity. The one thing 
which they now fear, being in the vortex of the great storm of war 
and in the centre of the economic typhoon of the twentieth cen^ 
tury, is national extinction. Even to-day the Coreans feel that 
they would rather live without the new things of civilization, such 
as railways, education, public hygiene, or even of righteous govern- 
ment, than be subject to an alien Power. History to the peninsular 
gives no uncertain sound as to what foreign intervention has 
always meant, that is, more oppression and even rapine. Seeing 
what has happened in half a lifetime, through the coming of the 
alien to Corea, the native does not want civilization at the hands 
of foreigners, though it may be that he will have to take it. Pos- 
sibly through education and a new outlook upon the universe he 
will be glad to get it, even struggling for it until by assimilation 



452 COEEA. 

it becomes his own. In ancient history and the old days of the 
separation of nations, there were many civilizations and varying 
standards. In these latter days of the world's brotherhood there 
is but one standard of civilization, and but one body of interna- 
tional law, which all must obey. The nation or kingdom that will 
not serve and obey this standard will pass out of history and 
perish. The signs that Corea realizes this truth and that her 
best men are seeking fraternity with their fellows for help and 
uplift are not wanting. Naturally they turn to the great republic, 
which since its beginning has steadfastly followed the policy of 
healing, helping, teaching, and uplifting the Asiatic nations. 

Corea sent a delegate to the International Postal Union, which 
met in Washington, and in 1896 a postal system with stamps of 
four kinds was established, and under French auspices has been 
working in excellent condition. The stamps, as well as the national 
flag and documents, coins and other expressions of what is essen- 
tially representative of the Coreans as a nation, illustrate their 
repertoire of symbolism. The flag in blue, red, black, and white 
contains the two great emblems of the primitive Chinese philosophy 
and theory of the universe. Through these, the Corean sees all 
things visible and invisible produced as the results of their endless 
working and counteraction in combination and dissolution. The 
forces of heaven and earth, light and darkness, the positive and 
the negative, the male and the female, the in and the yo, are repre- 
sented as two germs or commas in constant embrace or movement. 
This figure occupies the centre of the field and in each corner are 
the broken lines of the Pal Kwai, or eight diagrams of primitive 
Chinese tradition concerning the origin of language and writing. 
On the stamps we read the Chinese characters Tai ban and Corea. 
Like China, old Japan, Russia, Turkey and other church nations, 
which unite more or less closely Church and State and are gov- 
erned, in spite of all outward development and manifestations, 
by primitive or mediaeval notions, Corea is a " Tei Koku," or 
" divinely governed " realm, and so makes profession in Chinese 
characters, as does even modern Japan, though furnished with a 
Constitution and Diet. Besides these Chinese ideographs, we read 
in English, " Imperial Corean Post," and in the en-mun or native 
script, a sentence to the same effect. The national flower is the 
plum blossom, and is figured with its leaves on either side of the 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 453 

stem. The value or denomination of the stamp is given below 
both in English with Eoman letters, and in Corean or en-mun. 
The date-mark made by the ink-stamp shows in the French spell- 
ing of the name of the country and capital the international char- 
acter of the postal system. The national colors, as judged by the 
hangings in the royal palace, are yellow, red, and green. 

Imitating other things imperial in adjoining or Western 
nations, the Government at Seoul established a Bureau of Decora- 
tions. These baubles, being liberally distributed, have helped 
handsomely to deplete the treasury of the little empire, most of 
whose people live in a state of semi-starvation or righteous discon- 
tent. The Emperor himself and his generals and ministers have 
had their breasts liberally adorned with various marks of the 
regard of the rulers of Japan, Great Britain, Eussia, France, and 
Belgium, while between August 5, 1900, and December 20, 1902, 
the Corean Government had bestowed forty-two decorations, re- 
quiring a liberal outlay of bullion and artistic workmanship. To 
the Emperor of Japan, Queen Victoria, the Czar of Eussia, the 
Kaiser of the German Empire, the President of the French Eepub- 
lic, the King of Italy, the King of the Belgians, the Emperor of 
Austria, and the Crown Prince of Japan, the Great Decoration 
of the Golden Measure was aw^arded. This contains the emblem 
in the centre of the flag. No Americans have been thus officially 
adorned, but the Great Decoration of the Golden Measure was 
offered to President McKinley, only to be declined ; he having, hap- 
pily for the American people, nothing to offer in return. The 
Great Decoration of the Plum Blossom has been given to Prince 
Kwacho of Japan and the Eussian Prince Cyril, while the other 
decorations, containing the Pal Kwai of the eight mystic diagrams 
and the plum blossom or the national flower, in several grades or 
classes, have been offered to various servants or guests of the Gov- 
ernment. Along with this brilliancy on foreign coat breasts, it is 
suggestive to read in the imperial budget for 1904 that of $19,560 
appropriated to the bureau of decorations, the amount expended on 
bullion, medals, etc., was $7,431, and for salaries $10,130. Another 
interesting item, illuminating economic methods in Seoul, is that 
of $10,453 appropriated for the Mining Bureau. Of this amount 
the sum of $8,173 was spent for salaries and travelling, all the 
rest, except one item marked " miscellaneous $744,'^ being for office 



454 CORE A. 

expenses. In the Ceremonial Bureau $19,000 were used on salaries 
and office expenses out of a total of $21,508. Similar titbits of 
economic information are frequent under the heads of the Board 
of Generals (who supervise an army supposed to be five thousand 
strong) and that of Imperial Sacrifices, and others, explain very 
clearly the condition of a country in which there is no clear line 
of demarcation between the palace and the Government or admin- 
istration, while eloquent in suggestions as to the reason why the 
larger part of Corea remains in a state of more or less chronic 
insurrection. 

The budget for 1904 shows a total revenue of $14,214,573 
made up of the following items : land tax, $9,703,591 ; house tax, 
$460,295; taxes on salt, fish, etc., $210,000; poll tax, $850,000; 
miscellaneous taxes, $200,000; arrears from 1903, $2,790,687. 

The items of disbursement are as follows : Imperial privy purse, 
$1,013,359; imperial sacrifices, $186,641; household department, 
$327,541; war department, $5,180,614; finance department, $42,- 
741,999 ; communications, $637,648 ; incidentals and extras, $1,843,- 
503. Other items, of which the police bureau, $406,925, and the 
foreign department, $287,367, and educational, $205,673, are the 
more important, are pension bureau, board of generals, the cabinet 
government records, bureau of decorations, law department, de- 
partment of agriculture, privy council, and special palace guard. 
It is pleasant to note that there is a surplus of $275, but the amount 
given for education and expended under the head of agriculture 
seems pitiful. The large items of the budget deal almost wholly 
with the salaries of native officials. One interesting and redeem- 
ing item among the "extras" is that "for helping shipwrecked 
men, $5,000." 

The greatest immediate need of Corea is a uniform and stable 
currency. Added to ancient evils was the action of Japan in 
adopting the gold standard in 1899, which threw all things com- 
mercial in Corea into dire confusion. On the 15th of December, 
1901, the coinage law was published, by which Corea adopted the 
gold standard; but this law was never put into effect. The Japa- 
nese have frequently endeavored by various means to secure a 
standard currency. 

Under the stimulus and pressure of foreign trade, Corea has 
now at least nine ports open to the residence and business of for- 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 455 

eigners besides the three or four inland places of traffic. Wonsan 
(Gensan), Fusan, and Chemulpo were opened by the treaties of 
1876 and 1882, and have thriving settlements. The ginseng crop 
exported from these places is usually bought by Japanese, whose 
usual practice is that, for example, of May, 1902, when of the 
fifty thousand catties, ten thousand catties were burnt at Chemulpo, 
in order to keep up the price. On the 1st of October, 1898, Chin- 
nampo and Mokpo were added to the list of open ports. The for- 
mer lies on the northern shore of Ping-an inlet, twenty miles 
from the sea and forty miles from Ping-an city. It is now a 
thriving town with well laid-out streets. As the river leading to 
Ping-an is for ten miles or so below the city not navigable even 
by very small sea-going steamers, it can never be " a port ^' in the 
ordinary sense, but the returns of its trade are tabulated with 
those of Chinnampo, its outlet. WijU (Ai-chiu) and Anju are 
almost the only other ports of value in the province of Ping-an. 
Anju is the landing stage of the American Mining Company for 
its mining materials and explosives. 

Yongampo is in north latitude 38° 52' and east longitude 
126° 04'. When it was opened in 1898, Eussians and Japanese 
took up land so eagerly that a collision seemed imminent. Later 
it came very near being made a Eussian fortress as " Port Nich- 
olas." Mokpo, in the southwestern part of Chullado, is the natu- 
ral maritime outlet of " the Garden of Corea." Soon after it was 
made port of entry and trade, the wisdom shown in its selection 
was justified, for its growth has been healthy and rapid. From this 
point, in the autumn of 1902, a Boston gentleman went into the 
interior for a hunting trip of two months, during which time he 
killed three large tigers, besides deer and wild boar. 

On May 1, 1899, Kunsau, Masampo, and Songchin were thrown 
open to foreign trade and residence. Kunsan is on the west coast, 
and like Mokpo, long famous for its abundant export of rice paid as 
revenue. It lies at the mouth of the river dividing the two rich 
and warm provinces of ChuUa and Chung Chong, about half- 
way between Chemulpo and Mokpo, whence the rice, wheat, beans, 
hides, grasscloth, paper, manufactured articles in bamboo, fans, 
screens, mats, and marine products of many kinds are exported. 
Masampo, a few miles to the southwest of Fusan, in north latitude 
35° 09' and east longitude 128° 40', has one of the finest harbors 



456 COKEA. 

in the world, whicli, when well fortified, might command the 
entrance to the Sea of Japan. In the negotiations between Japan 
and Eussia, in 1903, this spot was jealously coveted by both Pow- 
ers as the prize of the future, as the party possessing it might 
make it a Dardanelles, closing the sea between the island empire 
and the continent and making this body of water a Euxine. Rus- 
sia tried to bind Japan not to fortify this or any other place on 
the east coast of Corea. Japanese, Russians, Chinese, and Coreans 
soon flocked to this favored port and have made business lively. 
Songchin, once the seat of an old stronghold, in the large north- 
eastern province of Ham Kiung, bordering on Russia, which has 
no long navigable rivers, as in the south, lies about 120 miles from 
Wonsan and sends most of its products thither. It has a poor 
harbor in a foggy region, but fertile soil, fat cattle, and mineral 
riches are within reach. The Customs Reports for 1903 show a 
growing trade of $328,891. Eleven other landing stages bring up 
the total value of trade in Ham Kiung province to $1,676,714. 
In 1902 the total imports were nearly balanced by the exports 
from all Corea. Cotton is becoming an important item of sale 
abroad. Gold in 1902 was exported to the amount of $2,532,053. 
The total value of foreign trade has doubled during the past decade. 
So far the steamer tonnage is, like the general foreign trade, over 
three-fourths Japanese. Most emphatically and luminously does 
the modern economic as well as political history of the peninsula 
prove that the best interests of Japan and Corea are closely inter- 
woven. Mutual benefit follows unity and friendship, reciprocal 
injury results from estrangement. 

All these open ports are the gateways of a commerce that must 
steadily and healthfully increase, and which under stable and just 
government would rapidly enlarge. So long as there is uncertainty 
as to the political status of the Land of Morning Calm, the chief 
importance of the maritime gateways into the country will be 
strategic and military, rather than commercial. A permanent set- 
tlement of the political question, in debate ever since the modern 
renascence of Japan, ought to act on the development of the natu- 
ral resources of Corea as the warm spring rains act upon soil long 
chilled and fallow under winter's frost. Few regions, whether we 
consider its geographical location for commerce, the fertility of 
its soil, its animal wealth, the richness of its mineral deposits, or 



THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA. 457 

the abundance of its treasures in the sea, are more highly favored 
than Corea. When man, society, and government in the peninsula 
answer Nature's challenge and match the opportunity, the world 
will find that history's storehouse of surprises has not been empty. 
Toward the development of the kind of man needed, the Chris- 
tian missionaries are, above all other teachers and forces, working, 
and with every sign of promise. 



CHAPTER L. 

INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 

The preponderating influence of China was the mainspring in 
the intricate machinery of old Corean politics, though within the 
two clearly defined parties in Seoul there are also factional 
and family differences. " From 1834 to 1864 the royal clan was 
shorn of much of its power, all offices were in the hands of the 
Kim clan, whose head, Kim Pyong-gi, was virtually ruler of the 
land for the years ending that epoch." The Kims hoped to con- 
tinue the lease of their power, but the Tai-wen Kun humbled this 
clan and exalted his own, meanwhile doing much for the common 
people and compelling the yangban to bear a share of the bur- 
dens of government in paying a house tax. In his whole course 
toward these predatory gentry, he was " a blundering anticipator " 
of the great reforms of 1894. He began the suppression of the 
Tong-haks. He was a great builder of public edifices, not only in 
Seoul, but in the provinces. He protected the country against the 
foreigner. He meant well in his ignorance, but he knew nothing 
of the world at large. His first lease of power came to an end 
in 1873. 

The first Corean noblemen, Kim and Pom, left their homes in 
1875 to travel in lands beyond China. They went to Japan, and 
coming back, boldly told the King what they had seen and advo- 
cated the adoption of Western civilization. They tried to win over 
the powerful Min clan and the Queen to a liberal policy, but this 
to the Regent, Tai-wen Kun, meant nothing else than Christian- 
ity and radical reform, which involved popular education. That 
is exactly the sort of reform that every Confucian mandarin in any 
country of Asia hates most heartily, because he sees in the general 
enlightenment of the people the end of the power of the literati. 
The bold and crafty statesman, who, as Prince Parent, held his 
son the King as his puppet and had already shed the blood of 
thousands of native Christians, nearly succeeded in putting the 
458 



INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 459 

two young champions of Western civilization to death. When the 
American treaty negotiations were impending, the Min clansmen 
held aloof until China, as represented by Li Hung Chang, gave 
the nod. Then they showed so much energy in the matter as to 
seem to foreigners the party of progress. This roused the wrath 
of the Eegent, who determined to crush the Min clan and to nul- 
lify the treaty. We have seen how, in July, 1882, by a masterly 
appeal to local bigotry and superstition, he directed the soldiers' 
riot into a revolt against the pro- Chinese clan. After destroying, 
as he imagined, their leading men and the Queen, he seized the 
government himself, enjoying for a few days full lease of power. 

When the news of the usurpation reached China and Japan, 
a fleet with soldiers was despatched from each country. The Chi- 
nese force landed first, marched to Seoul, built forts to command 
the river against the Japanese, and established their camp inside 
the walls. By this move China held a new lien on her "vassal 
state.^^ The Chinese general made his formal call on the Tai- 
wen Kun, and when this lord of the land returned the courtesy, 
he was seized and deported to China. Meanwhile the Queen, for 
whom a palace maid had suffered vicarious death, together with 
some of her chief helpers and advisers, re-entered the palace Octo- 
ber 9, 1882. The star of the Min clan was again in the ascendant. 

Thus the results of the Eegent^s smart trickery were not pleas- 
ant for the Coreans, for now they had both the Chinese and the 
Japanese soldiers encamped in the capital and on the ground 
where nearly three hundred years before they had met in battle. 
By good discipline on both sides, collision between the soldiers was 
avoided, but the Government at once made provision to replace the 
foreign soldiery by native troops. Four battalions of Corean in- 
fantry were organized and put under Chinese drill masters, intro- 
duced by the Min leaders. Fourteen young men, mostly members 
of Progressive families, were sent to Tokio to study in the military 
school. 

The treaty negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt was promptly 
ratified by the United States Senate, and on February 26th Pres- 
ident Chester A. Arthur sent in the name of General Lucius H. 
Foote as Minister to Corea. Peaching Chemulpo May 13th in 
the U.S.Ss. Monocacy, the formal ratifications of the treaty were 
exchanged in the capital May 19th. The same cannon, and served 



460 COREA. 

by some of the same sailors that in 1871 had shelled the Han 
forts/ peacefully saluted the new national flag, emblazoned with 
the proofs of Corea^s intellectual servitude to Chinese philosophy 
and fantastic traditions. Keeping clear of the native factions, 
Mr. Foote dealt as directly as possible with the sovereign. He 
made an earnest plea for the toleration of religion, a promise to 
proclaim which was secured from the King. 

The Corean Government responded to the American courtesy by 
despatching a special mission, consisting of eleven persons headed 
by Min Yong Ik, which arrived in San Francisco September 2d. 
President Arthur being then in New York, these quaintly appar- 
elled Oriental strangers were given audience in the parlor of the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel. After three months' stay in the eastern cities, 
one part of the embassy, headed by Han Yong Sik, returned home 
by way of San Francisco. A few days later, on the U.S.Ss. 
Trenton (afterward lost at Samoa) with Ensign G. C. Foulke 
(afterward of the Doshisha University, Kioto) and Lieutenant 
J. G. Bernadou, U.S.N. (afterward distinguished in the Spanish- 
American War of 1898, on the U.S.Ss. Winslow), as naval 
attaches to the American legation in Seoul, Min Yong Ik and 
two other Coreans returned home by way of Europe and the Suez 
Canal. 

On November 27th, at the Victoria Hotel in the city of 
New York, I had the pleasure of spending an agreeable evening 
with the three Corean gentlemen, Min Yong Ik, So Kuang Pom, 
and Pien Su, the two latter being able to talk Japanese.^ 

1 On which tablets erected to the memory of the slain have been erected by 
the Coreans, See the article, Kang-wha, by Rev. M. N. Trollope, (Corean) 
Asiatic Society Transactions, Vol. II, Part I. 

2 At that time I was engaged in editing and annotating Hamel's Narrative, 
which is the first account in any European language of Corea. Hamel and his 
party of Dutchmen were shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in Corea (see 
pp. 167-76). I have examined and read several copies in the original Dutch 
editions, printed in cheap pamphlet form at Rotterdam in Holland in 1668, and 
now preserved in the Royal Library at The Hague. The full narrative in English 
is given in the book Corea Without and Within. Philadelphia, 1884. Mr. 
Percival Lowell, the Secretary of the Corean Special Mission, returned with Han 
Yong Sik, and as the guest of the king spent a winter in Seoul, the literary fruit 
of which is the charming volume Chosen, the Land of Morning Calm, in which 
the proper names are transliterated according to Aston's Manual of Corean Geo- 
graphical and Other Proper Names Romanized. Yokohama, 1883. 



INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 461 

Though many of my questions were answered and a number of sub- 
jects discussed, nothing could be learned of Corean Christianity, 
or of the relics or reminders of Hendrik Hamel and his Dutch- 
men.^ Before leaving, Min Yong Ik, like a true Corean gentle- 
man, brought out a large package of choicest ginseng roots, with- 
out which no well-to-do native of the Land of Morning Calm 
would think of travelling abroad. He presented me with several 
choice specimens of the man-shaped drug, each wrapped up in its 
own " arms " and " legs.'' 

On the same evening in Seoul, November 27th, a banquet was 
spread in the English-language-school building to celebrate the 
signing on the day before of two treaties, one with Great Britain 
and the other with the German Empire, the negotiator of the 
English treaty being Sir Harry Parkes.^ The music was furnished 
by the band of the German man-of-war Leipsic. Seoul now began 
to be the residence of foreigners from Christendom, nine of whom 
were already in the city. 

New Year's Day, January 20, 1884, dawned brightly. The 
little children who during the summer are " dressed in a hair 
ribbon," made the streets brilliant with their bright clothes of 
many colors, and the sky was gay with kites. In the royal palace 
audience was given to the envoys of China, Japan, and the United 
States. On February 28th the electric submarine cable between 
Nagasaki and Fusan was completed and messages from the once 
hermit nation were sent into the outside world. Han Yong Sik 
was appointed postmaster with power to organize a national postal 
system, stamps for which were engraved in Tokio. From this 
Japanese base of supplies many novelties from the Western world 
poured in, and the body politic, long insulated from other nations, 
thrilled with new currents of life. Treaties were made with Eus- 
sia and Italy, June 25th and 26th. Later on, telegraph lines con- 



* Nevertheless, in 1886 there were unearthed in Seoul two Dutch vases, as 
described in Mr. Scott's paper in Vol. XXVIII, 1893-94, of the Transactions of 
the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, The figures of Dutch 
farm-life told their own story, and the well-worn rings of the handles bore evi- 
dence of constant use for years. Mr, Scott suggests that the presence of these 
Dutchmen might perhaps explain the anomaly often noticed in Corea — namely, 
blue eyes and fair hair. 

2 See his biography by Lane-Poole and Dickens, 1894. 



462 COREA. 

necting Seoul with Peking and with Fusan were completed. The 
year following the arrival home of the first Coreans who had gone 
round the world was a year of progress, such as Corea had never 
known before or has known since. 

Through the advice of Ensign Foulke, several reformatory 
measures, political and industrial, were promulgated. The most 
ardent member of the reform party, Pak Yong Hio, being made 
mayor of Seoul, immediately set to work at sanitary and municipal 
improvement. Some progress was made in dress improvement. 
A model farm, for which California live stock had been ordered, 
was sown by American seeds liberally given in Washington. Edi- 
son electric lights, American rifles and Gatling guns, a powder 
mill, a mint, a printing office for the dissemination of useful lit- 
erature for the people, together with Japanese artisans to estab- 
lish or improve properties, paper factories, and other industries, 
not excepting the fisheries and whale hunting, gave indications of 
the new path of national progress upon which Corea had entered. 
Altogether the early days of 1884 were as a morning of bright 
promise, for public opinion, so far as it existed, that is, among 
the nobles and gentry, seemed to be entirely in favor of progress. 
The most hopeful felt that the Corean Government, having begun 
to relay the foundations of the kingdom, would persevere and 
possibly even excel Japan. 

On the other hand, with the tide of Confucian bigotry rising 
and the Conservatives encouraged by Chinese reactionaries on the 
soil, how could there be any real advance? Yuan, the Chinese 
commissioner, living at the barracks in front of the palace, was 
ceaselessly active in the interests of his own Government, which 
meant active support of the Conservative party and opposition to 
reform. Over against enlightened liberalism, several incidents 
stood out in dark contrast, showing the inherent barbarism, the 
low state of Corean humanity, and the slight value set on human 
life. When the Chinese soldiery arrived, they seized ten of the 
rioters of 1882, court-martialled them, tied their limbs to bullocks, 
and tore them to pieces. Even after these men in office had re- 
turned from civilization they had eight more men, suspected of 
complicity with the Regent, executed by poison. Furthermore, the 
Kwang Wang temple was built, devoted to the interests of three 
thousand or more sorcerers and exorcists in Seoul, who enjoyed the 



INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 463 

direct patronage of the Queen, and sucked the vitals of the nation, 
making respectable government impossible. 

The innovations effected by the Progressives, who thought that 
they had the King and Queen in full sympathy with them, led them 
to hope that they would be able soon to reorganize the Government, 
to differentiate the Court from the Administration, and to make 
Corea a modern state. But according to the measure of their 
success, so also was the suspicion and hostility of the Conserva- 
tives. Min Yong Ik while abroad might be a Liberal, an indi- 
vidual with personal convictions and opinions, but once back in the 
bosom of his family and under pressure of his clan, he lost inter- 
est in reform. The Progressive leaders began to look upon him 
as a traitor to their cause. He took his stand with the Conserva- 
tives and it was soon evident that the Queen was withdrawing her 
sympathy and support from the Liberals, whose hopes seemed 
about to be dashed to the ground. These men therefore turned 
more and more to the Japanese and to their methods and spirit. 
They saw the revenues for the promised industries and enterprise 
diverted to warlike enterprises. It looked as if Corea, as tributary 
vassal, was to help China against France in the Tonkin complica- 
tion. Added to the fears of the Liberals was the local irritation 
caused by the insolent behavior of the ill-disciplined native troops 
who had been recruited almost wholly from the peddlers and huck- 
sters of the country fairs. The peddler's guilds in Corea hold a 
truly feudal relation to the Government, often preparing the roads 
and escorting officials on their journeys, acting as detectives, and 
forming militia according to the occasion. Some astonishing proofs 
of their power and discipline, especially in mountain regions, 
were given by Min Yong Ik to Lieutenant Foulke. Instead of 
their being independent, as they had hoped for under the Amer- 
ican treat}^, it seemed to the progressive men that the Chinese were 
more than ever ruling their country, and that the Mins were their 
tools. 

It was about October 25th that the Liberals, feeling that their 
heads were likely to remain on their shoulders only so long as it 
pleased their enemies to bring no charge against them, declared 
to their American friend that *^ for the sake of Corea, about ten of 
the prominent Conservatives would have to be killed." They pro- 
posed to play the same old Asiatic game of first seizing the person 



464 COREA. 

of the sovereign and then in his name proclaiming their own 
measures and reforms. The preliminaries would be a fire and a 
riot. Then, in the confusion, the man with a programme, know- 
ing just what to do, would direct affairs. They believed that the 
Powers would condone and approve their action, make new and 
more favorable treaties, and loan money for national improvement. 
Though the Conservatives had at their call a rabble of rapacious 
militia eager to try their new tools of war upon their hereditary 
enemies, the Japanese, the Liberals knew full well the sterling 
qualities of the little body of Japanese infantry then in the cap- 
ital, most of whom were from northern Japan and many of them 
deer hunters and dead shots with the rifle. There were fifteen 
hundred Chinese soldiers still in camp, under Yuan Shi Kai, then 
the lieutenant and later the successor of Li Hung Chang, but the 
Progressive plotters in their craft expected to secure the employ- 
ment of the two hundred or more Japanese soldiers for their own 
purposes. The moment for action seemed to be propitious for 
early December. A Japanese man-of-war was expected to arrive 
in Chemulpo on the 5th or 6th of that month. China, pressed by 
France, had withdrawn half her troops. Japan with a view to 
strengthening her influence in Corea had, a few days before, re- 
mitted $400,000 of the indemnity exacted for the riot of 1882. 
The golden moment to strike off forever the chains of political 
slavery to China was approaching. The date was set for the 7th 
of December. 

When, however, news arrived that the Japanese gunboat had 
broken down and was delayed and it was known that the Conserva- 
tives had got some intimation of what was coming, it was decided 
to start the fire, the riot, the coup d'etat a few days earlier. On 
the night of the 4th of December, Han Yong Sik, the Postmaster- 
General, gave a dinner at the new post-office, situated in the very 
heart of the city. The guests were three Chinese, Yuan, Chin, 
and Wang, two Americans, General Foote and his secretary, Mr. 
Scudder, the British Consul-General, W. G. Aston, the German 
Foreign Adviser, Von Mollendorf, and a dozen or more Corean high 
officers, both Conservatives and Progressives, Han Yong Sik, 
Kim Ok Kiun, Min Yong Ik, Pak Yong Hio, and So Kwang Pom. 
Others also were present. The Japanese minister was absent on 
the plea of ill-health. 



INTERNAL POLITICS : CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 465 

It was noticed that Kim Ok Kiun rose and left the table sev- 
eral times, going out into the courtyard, but nothing was thought 
of this action. The guests sat down at six. At seven a fire broke 
out, a house just in front of the post-office being in flames. Min 
Yong Ik, who had charge of the city fire-brigade, rose from the 
table, and calling on his servants to follow him, passed out. As 
he did so, a man dressed in Japanese clothes leaped out of the 
shadow of the gateway and struck at him fiercely with a sword. 
Min Yong Ik fell heavily, but though wounded in head and body 
he recovered through the skilful surgery of Dr. Horace N. Allen. 
The assassin escaj5ed, and the Corean guests, instead of leaving 
by the door, got away over the back wall. Hastening immediately 
to the old palace, the leaders of the conspiracy reached the royal 
presence, announced that the Chinese were coming to seize the 
King^s person and that he must hasten to a place of safety. Eeach- 
ing the small gate leading into the Kiong-u Palace, Kim Ok Kiun 
requested the King to send to the Japanese minister for a body- 
guard, but his Majesty refused. Thereupon So Kwang Pom drew 
out a piece of foreign note-paper and a pencil and wrote in Chi- 
nese the words " Let the Japanese minister come and give me his 
help.^^ ^ This was despatched by a servant. 

When the little company reached the Kiong-u Palace, the King 
was saluted by the Japanese minister and his interpreter, the 
twelve students who had been in Japan, and two hundred soldiers 
under Captain Murakami drawn up in line, who by some magic 
were all waiting there. Here then was the new Government, king, 
army, and counsellors. Word was sent to three of the Corean 
Liberals to come and receive office under the reconstructed author- 
ity. With amazing promptness they were present within half an 
hour. The programme had thus far been carried out with the 
precision of actors on a well-regulated theatrical stage. The 
" summoning tablet " was sent early in the morning by royal mes- 
senger to six of the Conservative leaders. Going to the palace in 
the expectation of losing their lives, they first sent word to the 
Chinese Yuan, warning him of the state of affairs and asking his 



* See the forthcoming Korean History, by Homer B. Hulbert, in the Korean 
Review (April, 1904, p. 180). This work is a complete survey of the story of 
Cho-sen from prehistoric to recent times. 



466 COREA. 

help. As soon as they had passed inside the palace gates their 
heads were chopped off. The royal eunuch was put to death in 
spite of the entreaties and remonstrances of the King himself. 
While the Japanese surrounded the gates of the palace, Kim Ok 
Kiun gave passes to those who were to be allowed to go in and out. 
In the reconstructed Government Yo Cha Wun and Han Yong Sik 
were prime ministers, Pak Yong Hio was made General-in-Chief, 
So Kwang Pom Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Ok Kiun Minis- 
ter of Finance, and Su Ja Pil Lieutenant- General. The young 
men who had studied in Tokio were also given official positions. 
All these proceedings simply illustrate the Corean method of the 
Opposition's moving a vote of censure of the Government. 

The Chinese "resident Yuan took no immediate action, but 
the next morning, December 5th, great surging crowds of Coreans 
begged that he would interfere, because they said the Japanese 
were holding the King as a prisoner in his palace. Yuan sent a 
messenger to the Japanese minister, inquiring why he had sur- 
rounded the King with soldiers and killed the ministers, demand- 
ing that he immediately evacuate the palace. After three hours 
had passed, and no answer coming. Yuan moved with his Chinese 
troops and the Corean military, making a force of four or five 
thousand men, toward the old palace. He found the entrance 
strongly guarded with the Japanese. The battle which ensued 
lasted from about 3 to 4 p.m., several score of the combat- 
ants being killed. As darkness drew near, the Japanese made 
their way to the northeastern part of the palace grounds, whence 
the King escaped from them with a few of the Progressive leaders 
and the party of students. The Corean soldiers carried the King 
to the north temple, where he was saved, but Han Yong Sik and 
seven of the students were hacked to pieces by the mob. About 
8 P.M. Captain Murakami led off his soldiers and making a mas- 
terly retreat reached the Japanese legation after forty-eight hours 
of absence. Pak Yong Hio, Kim Ok Kiun, So Kwang Pom, Su 
Ja Pil, and a half dozen or so of the military students accom- 
panied the Japanese. 

All day long on December 6th, with the cry of " Death to the 
Japanese,'' the Corean militia and the ruffians were let loose on a 
wild revelry of outrage, butchery, and incendiarism. The nine 
white foreigners in Seoul, of whom three were ladies, together 



INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 467 

with twenty-two Japanese who had escaped bullets, stones, and 
knives, found refuge in the American legation, which was put in 
a state of defence by Lieutenant Bernadou. The twenty soldiers 
left behind in the Japanese legation, aided by a hundred or more 
of their fellow refugee countrymen, defended the walled enclosure 
from the mob. On the afternoon of the 7th, provisions being 
exhausted, the Japanese with admirable coolness, discipline, and 
success began the march to Chemulpo. The women, children, and 
refugees were put inside of a hollow square formed by the soldiers, 
the legation buildings were fired, and despite hostile soldiers, Chi- 
nese and Corean with rifles and cannon, and armed men firing from 
roof and wall, they unbarred the city gates and with their wounded 
crossed the river. Eeaching Chemulpo on the 8th, they were fed 
by the sailors on the Japanese man-of-war, which had happily 
arrived. A Japanese steamer carried the news to Nagasaki. 

The short-lived Liberal Government came to an end after 
forty-eight hours' existence. The conspirators fled to Japan, 
whence most of them reached America. A month later Count 
Inouye, with a guard of six hundred troops, took up his quarters 
outside the west gate in Seoul and negotiations were opened. On 
January 9th a convention was signed by which the Corean Gov- 
ernment agreed to pay an indemnity of six hundred thousand yen, 
and Herr Von Mollendorf and Su Sang Yu were sent to Japan 
to arrange terms for the renewal of friendly relations. The Core- 
ans, to show their regret, chopped up and distributed around the 
streets the flesh and bones of eleven human beings supposed to 
have been active in the killing of defenceless Japanese in Seoul. 
At Tientsin, May 7, 1885, the Marquis Ito and Li Hung Chang 
signed a convention, by which it was agreed that the troops of both 
countries should be withdrawn and that neither government should 
land a military force in Corea without notifying the other. Early 
in the spring the Japanese legation was built at Corean expense 
in Occidental style, this being the first of the many foreign edi- 
fices which now adorn Seoul. The Chinese and Japanese troops 
embarked for their respective countries at Chemulpo on the 21st 
of May. On October 5, 1885, the Tai-wen Kun, fresh and rosy 
after his sojourn in Tientsin, re-entered Seoul. He was escorted by 
Chinese warriors and many thousands of Coreans. Most of his 
immediate followers being dead or in exile, his name was not often 



468 COREA. 

mentioned during the decade of years following. He lived in com- 
parative seclusion until the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese war. 

The Progressives of 1884 were in too much of a hurry. They 
had tried to hatch the egg of reform by warming it in the fire. 
The affair of December, in its origin an anti-Chinese uprising of 
Eadicals, became at its end an anti-Japanese demonstration in 
which about three hundred lives were lost. Yet as if to show that 
revolutions never go backward, this bloody business pushed open 
the gateway through which science and Christianity entered to 
hasten the exit of barbarism. Dr. Horace N. Allen, an American 
missionary physician, had arrived in Seoul in September, 1884. 
When called on the night of December 4th to minister to the Min 
Yong Ik, he found the native doctors stopping up the sword wounds 
with wax. Dr. Allen, by treating the injured man in scientific 
fashion, saved his life. The superiority of Western methods hav- 
ing been demonstrated, the wounded Chinese soldiers and Coreans, 
with their shattered bones and torn flesh, over which they had 
plastered the reeking hides cut from living dogs, or had utilized 
other appliances of helpless ignorance, came to him in crowds. 
Unable to attend to all these sufferers, application was made for 
a hospital. The Government at once set apart the dwelling occu- 
pied by Han Yong Sik and, naming it the House of Civilized 
Virtue, established April 10, 1885, a hospital. 

Following this event, American missionaries arrived in increas- 
ing numbers. The Government engaged three American young 
men, Messrs. D. A. Bunker, G. W. Gilmore, and H. B. Hurlbert, as 
teachers, who with thirty-five sons of noble families as their pupils 
opened a school September 23, 1885. Missionaries with unquench- 
able patience began the instruction of a people much better ac- 
quainted with malevolent demons than with beneficent beings or 
with one living and true God, whose only idea of sin is that it is a 
civil offence, and whose language has no word for the love of a 
superior to an inferior. In apathetic faces they were to light the 
fire of a new hope. To become a Christian in Corea means a com- 
plete revolution in a man's life, especially in that of a yangban, 
who has the intellectual power of a man with only the actual 
knowledge of a child. Nevertheless, with orphanages, Sunday- 
schools, Christian women's work in the home, organized Christian 
churches, hospitals, schools for boys and girls, and a printing 



INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 

establishment, most of the forms of active Christianity were soon 
visible in Corea, the country which, in 1904, with its tens of 
thousands of believers, is the most hopeful of missionary fields. 

A treaty with France, negotiated in the summer of 1886 and 
ratified May 30, 1887, enabled the French Eoman Catholic mis- 
sionaries to come forth into open day. They at once made prepa- 
rations for the erection of a cathedral, which, when completed and 
dedicated, May 29, 1897, was the tallest and most imposing edifice 
in the capital. It is 202 feet long and from 60 to 90 feet wide, 
and cost $60,000. ^he French minister endeavored to secure the 
same magisterial rights for the bishops and priests in Corea which 
have been long enjoyed by prelates of the Eoman form of Chris- 
tianity in China. Although at first the Government resisted, yet 
these claims have been virtually validated, and France acts in 
Corea, as elsewhere in Asia, as the protector of Eoman Catholics. 
Much disquiet and local disorder in various parts of the country, 
especially in Quelparte and the provinces of Whang Hai, may be 
traced to popular notions and the procedure of the priests based 
on this peculiarity of French foreign policy. 

Corea soon found that diplomacy could not be one-sided. Hav- 
ing dealings with foreign nations, it was not sufficient that West-- 
em governments should have their representatives in SecDwl,. 
while there were no Corean legations or consulates abroad,. An^ 
episode arising from international jealousies soon causedi tMs; 
desire to take tangible form, despite active opposition fromj China. 
On April 14, 1885, the British Government, in view of eventualK 
ities with Eussia, ordered the temporary occupation of Fort Ham- 
ilton in the Nan How group of islands, about thirty-fi-v^- miles fromi 
the northeastern end of Quelparte. Corea at once protested against 
this seizure of territory, and, in spite of all offers of gold for pur- 
chase, and all diplomatic pressure, she secured, after voluminous: 
correspondence and the assurance that Eussia would not occupy 
any part of Corea, the evacuation of Port Hamilton by the Brit- 
ish. The flag of the double cross was hauled down February 27, 
1887. At once the Government at Seoul prepared to send embas- 
sies to Japan, Europe, and the United States to establish perma- 
nent legations. This plan was of course opposed' by Yuan Shi Kai, 
the Chinese " resident," as he called himself, in an active, impu- 
dent, and villainous manner, he acting at the^ bjeck of his chief. 



470 COREA. 

Li Hung Chang. The right to make a treaty carries with it the 
right of a legation abroad, and the American minister, the Hon- 
orable Hugh N. Densmore, by order of the Government of the 
United States, invited the embassy to take passage in the 
U.S.Ss. Omaha, which was done. With his secretary. Dr. H. N. 
Allen, Pak Chung Wang, envoy plenipotentiary, arrived in Wash- 
ington and had audience of President Cleveland in January, 1888. 
A minister of equal rank went also to Europe and another to 
Japan. The Chinese " resident " then planned, by transferring 
his headquarters three miles from Seoul, to get all other foreigners 
removed from Seoul in order to have more power, but the scheme 
was frustrated in good season. 

The road out of fetichism, superstition, and ignorance into 
light and civilization was not an easy one and had many a draw- 
back. Until schools dispel ignorance, and the certainties of science 
dominate the minds of the natives terrorized by superstition, 
Corea, long intoxicated with sorcery, will suffer from continual 
attacks of the delirium tremens of paganism. Even the importa- 
tion of condensed milk acted on the diseased imagination of the 
people to develop the disease. In 1888 what is known as the 
" baby war " agitated the people. The report was spread abroad 
that Americans and Europeans were stealing children and boil- 
ing them in kettles for food, and that foreigners caught women 
and cut off their breasts. The absence of cows led the Coreans to 
believe that the condensed milk, so much used among them, came 
wholly from a human source. For a time there was imminent 
danger of an uprising, but a proclamation from the King couched 
in strong language calmed the excitement, which gradually died 
away. The local revolts against unjust taxation and dishonest 
officials occurred with the usual regularity of such events in Corea. 

Provision was made for a stable revenue in a system which 
was organized under Herr Von Mollendorf on an independent 
Corean basis, but after his dismissal in July, 1885, the customs 
service was put under the management of Sir Robert Hart, and 
an entirely new staff of men was sent from China. Mr. H. F. 
Merrill was made chief commissioner and the three open ports 
were given in charge of men directly from the Chinese customs 
staff, one of the most able and valuable among whom was Dr. 
McLeavy Brown. Financially promising as this movement seemed 



INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 471 

and has proved, it gave China her great prestige and furnished 
the, strongest lever for carrying out her ambitious plans in the 
peninsula, which some Coreans suspected of going even so far as 
to dethrone the King and to set up a new heir — a plot which Min 
Yong Ik exposed. Yuan, the Chinese resident, made himself prac- 
tically a Chinese mayor of the palace. In ostentatious display of 
gorgeous costume, palanquin and retinue, as he vibrated between 
the royal residence and the Chinese legation, he and his procession 
formed one of the notable sights of the Corean capital. In a 
word, Li Hung Chang's policy, working in conjunction with the 
Mins at court, headed by the Queen, resulted in a vigorous and 
undisputed reassertion of Chinese control, so that in the emer- 
gency which was soon to arise, the Peking Government felt per- 
fectly safe in speaking of Corea as " our tributary state." Appar- 
ently the influence of Japan had become a cipher, while that of 
the United States had dwindled into a merely academic theory of 
Corean independence. Potentially Japan was insulted and defied 
by her old rival and modern enemy. To make her grip on Corea 
sure, China massed her forces on the frontier, bought large quan- 
tities of N^agasaki coal for her steel-clad fleet at Port Arthur, 
and with her German-drilled army and great fortresses on the 
promontories guarding the sea-gates to the capital, she seemed 
herself deflantly ready to maintain her prestige regained in the 
peninsula which she called her "tributary state." 

Thus stood, or rather, thus crouched, in the early days of 1894, 
the pigmy, Corea, between the continental colossus on the one 
hand and the insular athlete on the other. To add to troubles 
imported from abroad, the long-standing intestine disturbances 
again broke out and the Tong Hak rebellion culminated in civil 
war, at the local causes of which we may now glance. This upris- 
ing of sectarians became not the cause, but the occasion of the 
clash between China and Japan, which ended in the destruction 
of China's claim of suzerainty over Corea, and the independence 
of the peninsular state. 



CHAPTER LI. 
THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 

In" Asia and in semi-civilized states, as in the old European 
world, each sovereignty is a church nation. Religion and the state 
are one. China, Corea, and Japan, in their normal oriental con- 
dition, are all acute illustrations of the evils of the union of 
church and state. Like Turkey and Russia, they are persecuting 
nations, allowing no freedom of conscience to the subject. Any 
attempt to think differently from the orthodox and established 
cult, or philosophy, is sure to call down persecution, torture, and 
death. Modern Japan, by ceasing to be oriental and adopting 
freedom of conscience, has simplified the relations between ruler 
and ruled. China still persecutes in bigotry, and during the course 
of her history has shed more blood in the name of religion and 
government than probably the mediaeval states of Europe.^ In 
all Asiatic countries in which religious despotism still flourishes, 
practical Christianity, especially that form of it which is founded 
on the Bible in the vernacular, is the great disturbing force, even 
as it is the hope of the future. It comes at once into collision 
with the theory of the union of Church and State. Giving the 
common man a new outlook on the universe makes him exactly the 
kind of man that despots and men of privilege and prerogative 
most bitterly fear, hate, and oppose. Of this truth Corea is a 
striking illustration. 

The religious history of the people in the Corean peninsula is 
first that of fetichism and shamanism, then of Buddhism, which 
brought in culture and made a nation, giving also to the land 
its permanent monuments, its art, manners, and most of its folk- 
lore and general traditions. In the intellectual clash which, in 
every country in eastern Asia, has at one time or another taken 

* See Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, by J. J. de Groot. 
Amsterdam, 1904. 

472 



THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 473 

place between Confucianism and Buddhism, Buddhism remained 
victorious. Eunning a splendid career for over a thousand years, 
it finally reached corruption through wealth, worldliness, and 
political ambition. Yet intrenched in office and revenue, it held 
its own until overthrown with the dynasty in 1392, when Con- 
fucianism, after a long struggle, became the state church system. 
Buddhism, left to stagnation and decay, and as the religion of 
the peasants, remained in a frightfully corrupt form, while the 
scholars and thinking men were almost wholly devoted to Con- 
fucianism. As this system of Chinese ethics lends itself most 
admirably to despotism and the continuance in power of the priv- 
ileged classes over the masses, so also under stereotyped Confucian- 
ism, Corea^s type of civilization, as we see it to-day, seems to mean 
for the nation at large only a general degradation as compared 
with the splendor of the mediaeval Buddhist age. Allied with 
Chinese bigotry of race and ignorance of the world, Corean Con- 
fucianism degenerated still further into the savagery of conceit, 
of which the Tai-wen Kun seemed an incarnation, and made 
Cho-sen, as a body politic, a country eaten up with parasites — 
one-tenth of the population living on the other nine-tenths. In 
the persecution of the Christian converts to that form of Chris- 
tianity which entered in 1777, Corean Confucianism showed itself 
as barbarous and as devilish as the Spanish Inquisition, or any- 
thing else in history which masks man's lower nature under the 
garb of noble pretexts. Nevertheless, the very patience of the 
Christians under their tortures, the zeal and consecration of both 
the natives and their foreign priests, so impressed a Corean scholar 
named Choi, that in 1859 he set himself to ponder the question 
whether, after all, Christianity, though foreign, were not the true 
religion. 

After severe sickness and a revelation, as he believed, from 
the Lord of Heaven, Choi felt himself called to found a new re- 
ligion. He proceeded to do so after the time-honored manner 
most fashionable in China, Corea, and Japan, where originality 
is not too common, that is, make an eclectic system. From the 
ethics of Confucius and the philosophy of his commentators, from 
the writings of Lao-tsze and his interpreters, and from the Bud- 
dhist sutras and their accretions, he composed a book entitled the 
Great Holy Scripture and wrote out the brief prayer which his 



474 COREA. 

followers still daily repeat. As Christianity was a Western sect, 
he gave to his new religion the name of Tong Hak, Eastern Doc- 
trine or Culture. Many, perhaps most, of his followers laid their 
emphasis in the new religion upon the idea of maintaining Orien- 
talism as against Occidentalism. Beginning in the town of Kion 
Chiu, forty-five miles north of Fusan, the movement spread 
quickly into the provinces of Chung Chong and Chullado. Enter- 
ing the sphere of politics, it gave the downtrodden peasants hope 
and new life, in the midst of the awful night of ever-increasing 
official corruption and oppression. It was about this time that 
the tenure of office by the provincial governors was changed from 
three years to one year. This move, made in the interests of the 
official class, vastly increased the burdens laid upon the people, 
since the political spoilsman, who usually bought his office, having 
now less time wherein to recoup and fill his own chest, became 
threefold more grasping than before. 

The influence of Christianity is very manifest in the history 
of the Tong Haks and in the literary, dogmatic, and devotional 
manifestations of their leader. Within six years, under the fierce 
initiative of the Tai-wen Kun, Choi and his disciples were offi- 
cially charged with being " foreigner Coreans " and followers of 
the Lord of Heaven, that is, Eoman Catholic Christians. Choi 
was tried, tortured, and beheaded, and his doctrines were outlawed. 
As with the" Boxer and other common delusions among the igno- 
rant, the Tong Haks believed that " by the influence of their god 
they could dance the sword dance and ascend into the air.^^ The 
sect kept on spreading year after year, its animus blending with 
that spirit of revolution and resistance to intolerable official oppres- 
sion then rampant in the southern provinces, the two movements 
melted into each other and became one. 

Early in 1893, before the palace gate at Seoul, there was a 
wonderful sight. With pathetic ceremonies and long and patient 
waiting, fifty of Choi's followers presented a petition that their 
founder be rehabilitated and their sect be tolerated even as the 
Christians were. They intimated that if they were kept under 
ban they would drive all aliens out of the country. Their prayer 
for toleration was refused, and they were driven away by the pal- 
ace guards. In the springtime the Tong Haks led a great uprising 
of the peasantry in the southern provinces. The soldiers sent to 



THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 475 

Seoul to put down the insurrection were scattered like chaff before 
the wind. The insurgents occupied the chief city of Chullado 
and the danger seemed to threaten the whole kingdom. The 
Corean general. Hong, notified the Court of his inability to cope 
with the situation. Then the pro-Chinese faction in Seoul, insti- 
gated by Yuan, applied to Peking asking for military aid to put 
down the Tong Hak rebels. According to the Li-Ito convention of 
May 7, 1885, neither China or Japan could send soldiers into 
Corea without first notifying the other Power. 

Meanwhile Kim Ok Kiun was in Japan. Though the Grovern- 
ment at Seoul repeatedly demanded his extradition and both in 
Corea and Japan assassins continually plotted to kill him, he 
received the same asylum and protection which, under the laws of 
civilization, the Government in Tokio gave to all foreigners. 
Finally, in 1894 Kim Ok Kiun was lured to Shanghai by a false 
telegram and a forged bank-draft. On his arrival at the hotel he 
was promptly murdered. His assassin was rewarded with honor, 
fame, and money from Seoul, and in China looked on as a hero. 
With indecent haste, but following its ancient barbarous tradi- 
tions, the Chinese Government made itself the express company 
which carried the victim's body in a man-of-war to Corea, where 
it was cut to pieces and the head and limbs exposed on the public 
highway. This action of China raised a storm of popular wrath 
in Japan, while about the same time, China, first on June 7th 
forwarding .her troops into Corea, in violation of the treaty of 
1885, sent a defiant insult to the Tokio Government. Following 
this action, a despatch was sent to the Japanese legation in Peking, 
in which were the words which we italicize : " It is in harmony 
with our constant practice to protect our tributary states by send- 
ing our troops to assist them. . . . General Weh has been ordered 
to proceed to Zenra ... to restore the peace of our tributary 
state.'' Thus by force of arms China defied Western diplomacy, 
and, trampling on the treaties, asserted her ancient claims of 
suzerainty over Corea as her vassal state. 

The reply of the Tokio Government was the announcement, 
on June 12, 1894, of the despatch of a body of the Mikado's troops 
under strict discipline to Cho-sen. On June 17th China was in- 
vited to co-operate with Japan in financial and administrative re- 
forms in Corea, in order to preserve the peace of the Far East. 



476 COREA. 

China curtly refusing this request, demanded the immediate re- 
turn to Japan of her soldiers, at the same time ordering her Tartar 
forces in Manchuria to cross that ancient Kubicon of eastern Asia 
— the Yalu River. Chartering the British ship Kow Shing, she 
put on board eleven hundred soldiers with ammunition and artil- 
lery to reinforce the Chinese camp at Asan in the northwest of 
Chung Chong province. The reply from Tokio was, that, pending 
an amicable settlement of the questions in dispute, any further 
despatch of Chinese troops into Corea would mean war. 

As soon as it was known in Tokio that the Tartar forces had 
been mobilized and that the Kow Shing was being loaded, the 
Japanese fleet sailed and orders were given to the troops, railways, 
and steamers to be ready for the embarking of an army. Within 
twelve days a Japanese army corps was landed at Chemulpo, 
marched to Seoul, the Han River bridged by pontoons in twenty 
minutes, and the military cordon around Seoul completed. On the 
20th of July Yuan fled the Corean capital, leaving his nationals to 
shift for themselves. On the 23d Mr. Hoshi Torn, envoy of the 
Mikado, with a military guard entered the palace and demanded 
of the King an answer to the question of Corea's independence 
and willingness to stand by her treaty with Japan. The royal 
answer was in the affirmative. The King called in the Tai-wen 
Kun to allay his fears and aid him in the formation of a new 
cabinet, to which he invited, for the most part, the Liberals exiled 
in 1884. Prince Pak Yong Hio, who had been declared an arch- 
traitor and his house razed to the ground, was again received into 
royal favor. 

On July 25th the Japanese cruiser Naniwa, under Captain, 
now Admiral, Togo, met the Kow Shing. After four hours of 
parley and refusal to surrender, the transport was sunk by the 
guns of the Naniwa. On July 29th and 30th the Japanese met 
the Chinese forces at Asan, routed them and occupied their strong- 
hold. The declarations of war between the emperors of China and 
Japan, the old rival Sons of Heaven, were published to the world 
on the same day, August 1, 1894. The former was full of arro- 
gance and ignorance, the latter was clear in phrase and temperate 
in tone. The Chinese lady then on the throne called on her sol- 
diers to " root the pigmies out of their lair." With the conceit and 
stupidity of the giant, China went to war against the intelligent 



THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 477 

and splendidly armed Jack of the islands. In results it was an 
affair of Goliath and David over again. Ancient and overweening 
orthodoxy met culture and intelligence in the field and on the wave, 
to be confronted by what was despised as too small to do harm. 
At bottom the Chino-Japanese war meant the right of a nation 
to change its civilization. Japan, already a signatory to the Geneva 
Convention and her officers trained in the ways of civilization, 
even though her people were dubbed heathen by some semi-en- 
lightened folks of the West, went to war in Christian style. The 
Japanese had a superb Red Cross organization, a corps of sur- 
geons, and a body of fifteen hundred trained nurses, while their 
hospitals were equipped according to scientific ideas. With each 
army corps and fleet went a lawyer versed in international law, 
to see that nothing should be done against the laws of nations. 
The literary fruits of these precautions and this loyalty to the 
high standards of civilization are seen in Mr. Takahashi's mas- 
terly work " International Law During the Chino-Japanese War," 
and in Mr. Ariga's " La guerre Sino- Japonaise au point de vue 
du droit Internationale." The Chinese had not yet (or before the 
year 1904) recognized the laws of civilization and had scarcely the 
beginning of hospital corps, hospitals, or surgeons. It was not 
wonderful, therefore, that her wounded usually crawled away to die 
like dogs, or that her ignorant soldiers frequently fired upon those 
bringing succor to the wounded. The official organization of the 
Chinese was honeycombed with corruption, but with their thirty 
thousand drilled troops and fleet, including battle-ships, of which 
the Japanese had none, they expected easy victory. Occupying 
Ping-an, they built between fifty and sixty forts. At sea their 
fleets were busy in convoying transports full of soldiers to the 
mouth of the Yalu Eiver to prevent the Japanese from advancing 
beyond Corea and in the hope of overwhelming them at one onset. 
On the site of their previous victory three centuries before, they 
expected to rout the Japanese and then to drive them southward 
and out of Corea. 

The Japanese, centuries ago, learned the difference between 
bulk and brain, and are but slightly overawed in the presence of 
mere weight or size. They knew that the military reputation of 
China only existed on paper, and their excellent system of jiu-jitsu 
had taught them how to turn an enemy's strength against him- 



478 CO RE A. 

self. Her soldiers had grown up in the new era of ideas which 
had come to fruit under Christian civilization. Borrowing these 
ideas and forces and combining them with their own resources and 
informing them with their own genius, they gave the world a sur- 
prise. They had long grieved in spirit over their non-recognition 
by the world at large of their peaceful ambitions and of the prin- 
ciples that lie at the basis of their civilization. They mourned that 
war and bloodshed were necessary to impress the world and secure 
respect. Within six months they humbled China and compelled 
her to sue for peace. 

In three divisions, up from the south, eastward from the mouth 
of the Ta Tong River, and westward from Gensan, the three col- 
umns of the Japanese army marched and met at Ping-an (Ping 
Yang). After two days' fighting, September 15th and 16th, the 
Chinese hosts were routed. The next day, at sea, off the mouth 
of the Yalu River, the Chinese fleet, in the first great battle of 
modern steel ships, was disabled and was never afterward able to 
resume the offensive. Before October 1st Corea was entirely 
cleared of Chinese. On the continent of Asia, chiefly in Man- 
churia, they held an area larger than their own empire. Port 
Arthur fell on !N"ovember 21st, and the great fortress of Wei-hai- 
wei was surrendered January 31, 1895. 

Then Russia unmasked. Calling to her aid France and Ger- 
many, this triple alliance compelled Japan to give up all claims 
upon the continent and to be content with an indemnity and the 
island of Formosa. Had the Japanese possessed a fleet of battle- 
ships, they would have refused this insolent demand and declared 
war on Russia. As it was, the treaty of Shimonoseki, between Li 
Hung Chang and Ito and Mutsu, was signed. The Japanese 
spent the indemnity money on a new navy and proceeded to gird 
themselves for their next war with another giant, and to show 
again the difference between bulk and brain. 

Corea suffered surprisingly little from the presence of two 
great armies on her soil. Her people were paid liberally for labor 
and materials which they so grudgingly furnished to the Japanese, 
who were not, in this instance, sufferers on account of their own 
excess of politeness, while the Chinese troops were within her bor- 
ders too short a time to be a very heavy tax. Only around Ping- 
an was there much public or private suffering. 



THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 479 

In Seoul, the Mikado's envoy, as early as August, began to 
insist upon a programme of reforms, which, had they been carried 
out, would have amounted virtually to a new constitution. 

In the reconstruction of the administration of the seven depart- 
ments, that of Public Works was broadened to include Agriculture 
and Commerce, and in place of the Department of Ceremonies 
there was created one of Education co-ordinate with the others. 
A mighty programme of reforms, twenty-three in number, was pre- 
pared, but enough to make up several social tornadoes, some of 
which were possible, while others seemed too radical and absurd 
on their faces. A new mint began to issue coins in European 
form. 

The second son of the King was sent to Tokio to bear the thanks 
of the nation and Government for having secured the independence 
of Cho-sen. The Corean sovereign, on January 8, 1895, with tre- 
mendous picturesqueness of procession, pomp, and circumstance, 
proceeded to the temple of his ancestors and with imposing cere- 
monies solemnly adjured all vassalage and dependence upon China. 
The official name of the new empire is Dai Han or Ta Han, that 
is, the Great Han, single and sovereign, as contrasted with the 
three (San Han) of ancient history. With this royal act vanished 
from history the strangest anomaly in diplomacy, and one of the 
last of the dual sovereignties in Asia. Furthermore, from this 
time forth, the whole tissue and complexion of Corean politics 
altered. The native scholars began to seek a new intellectual 
climate and the culture of the West. Scores of students were 
sent abroad and many foreigners were employed, as in the new 
Japan of 1868. 

When, however, Count Inouye, one of the purest and best states- 
men in Japan, in co-operation with the Eeform Committee of the 
Corean Government began his labors, the old chronic difficulties 
at once presented themselves and in legions. There seemed to be 
no real patriotism in the country. Kare indeed was the native of 
ability who was not hopelessly inoculated with the vices of the old 
clans and noble families, whose only idea of the relation between 
government and office holders was that of the udder and the suck- 
ing pig. Plots and jealousies continually hampered reform. The 
real problem was to separate the functions of the Court from those 
of the Government, which in Corea, as in China, had never been 



480 COKEA. 

fully done. In Japan the holding of office by females in the palace 
had been abolished. In the palace at Seoul their influence could 
secretly nullify public business. The question of succession to the 
throne without Court intrigue through the influence of the Queen 
and the mob of palace underlings, and the reconstruction of the 
military system and that of civil and criminal law were grappled 
with. Over one hundred young men were sent to Japan to study. 
On June 20, 1895, a royal ordinance was issued dividing the king- 
dom into thirteen prefectures, five of the large provinces being 
divided into two parts, with 151 districts and 339 magistracies. 
A cabinet, with nine boards of administration, was organized, and 
a judiciary system for the entire country formed, a postal system 
inaugurated, and the army, consisting of 5,000 men, was put under 
the instruction of Japanese and American officers. For all these 
enterprises, money was of the first necessity. Attempts, therefore, 
were made to reform the revenue, making taxes payable in money 
instead of in kind, while lands illegally seized were restored to 
their rightful owners. 

All seemed to promise well, notwithstanding that many of the 
old-style gentry, who saw in the change a lessening of their income, 
still opposed what they called the " civilization nonsense." The 
Chinese merchants gradually returned after the war and resumed 
business. Foreign trade in 1895 amounted to nearly thirteen 
million dollars. Commercial prosperity seemed to be general and 
increasing. A fitful insurrection of the Tong Haks, in the sum- 
mer of 1895, was completely subdued by Japanese troops. All 
was proceeding auspiciously until Count Inouye left Corea for a 
visit home. The Queen, who feared that her father-in-law, the 
Eegent, might make a bad use of the Japanese troops, was anxious. 
Count Inouye assured her that the Mikado's Government "would 
not fail to protect the royal house of Corea." Thus allaying her 
well-grounded suspicions. Count Inouye left Seoul about Sep- 
tember 15th. 

There were still living in the peninsula the two ablest charac- 
ters, man and woman, in modern Corean history; the Queen, 
bound to overcome, and nullify by her craft and the power of the 
Min clan, the reforms begun by the Japanese, and the old Eegent, 
who was bent on getting his son's wife out of the way, by fire, 
sword, poison, or dynamite. Nominally about seventeen thousand 



THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 481 

useless persons in Government employ and pay had been discharged, 
and the Queen's palace attendants reduced from hundreds to a 
dozen. But after Inouye had gone away, these parasites grad- 
ually returned at her invitation, until the palace was crowded again 
as of old with her women, eunuchs, servants, and underlings of all 
sorts, while her clansfolk prepared for another of those plots so 
characteristic of unregenerated Corea. At the signs of danger, 
Prince Pak Yong Hio, minister of Home Affairs, fled the capital. 
It looked to the Japanese as if all their work and influence were to 
come to nothing. They had been foiled by a woman. 

The Tokio Government had appointed as its envoy, in place of 
Count Inouye, a military officer named Miura, who, like the French 
Zouave de Bellonet, of whom we have read before, brought to his 
work in Seoul the habits of the camp and the methods of the sol- 
dier, rather than the patience, tact, and civil abilities of his imme- 
diate predecessor. About this time there were in Seoul many 
Japanese, of all grades of character, especially soshi, political bul- 
lies or " heelers '^ from Tokio, angry at the Queen, who, as they 
professed to believe, was the friend of Eussia. These men gathered 
many other spirits like unto themselves from among the native sol- 
diers who had been discharged through the Queen's influence. Soon 
both the native and the foreign worthies concluded, with the Tai- 
wen Kun, that for the good of Corea the Queen would have to be 
killed. On the early morning of October 8th the Japanese troops 
were conveniently and purposely posted so as to make possible the 
entrance into the palace of a motley band of ruffians, some sixty in 
number. Seizing the Queen in her own apartments, they murdered 
her, dragged her corpse into one of the areas outside, poured 
petroleum over the rice straw mats and clothing and set the heap 
on fire. Thus perished one of the ablest women in Corean annals. 
A new Government was quickly formed under the instigation of 
the Tai-wen Kun. A radical programme of reforms was published, 
new officers were appointed at home and envoys sent abroad. With 
horrible mockery of history and justice, this "rebel cabinet" — 
as the King later stigmatized it in public documents — pretended 
that the Queen was alive and forthwith conducted an absurd trav- 
esty of publicly trying some native accused of her murder. In the 
name of his Majesty a proclamation was forged degrading the 
Queen to the level of a servant. All this was done by men, some 



482 COREA. 

of whom, it seems impossible to doubt, were implicated in the 
palace slaughter. When on November 27th some ultra-patriotic 
Coreans, opposed to the Japanese and the policy of the Tai-wen 
Kun, made an effort to drive out their new rulers by an attack on 
the palace and failed, the chief participants, as well as those alleged 
on trumped-up charges to have been in the affair of October 8th, 
were executed December 8th. Meanwhile there were anti-Japanese 
riots in many parts of the country. 

On hearing of the strange use of the Mikado's soldiery in 
Seoul, the Japanese Government promptly recalled Miura and 
arrested forty-seven persons supposed to have taken part in the 
assault on the palace in Seoul. Nevertheless, in the court at Hiro- 
shima, technical evidence against them was lacking and the whole 
band of this new I-ro-ha of modern Japanese heroism was dis- 
charged free of blame, or at least without the stigma of condem- 
nation. It is probable that the whole affair of October 8th was 
connived at by a reckless diplomatic blunderer, to the regret and 
mortification of the Mikado's ministers and the national sentiment 
of Japan. In any event, it proved the death-blow, for a time at 
least, of Japanese prestige in Corea. In December the troops of 
Japan evacuated the country. 

This was almost the last appearance in public of "Yi Ha- 
eung, Prince of Heung Song," the Tai-wen Kun, or Prince Parent. 
He emerged fitfully on one occasion before the police authorities 
to secure the release of one of his retainers, and then retired to 
his estate in Kiodang. He died peacefully, on the 22d of Febru- 
ary, 1898, and was buried with due ceremonies. His mausoleum, 
made according to all the proprieties of Corean taste and mortuary 
art, makes an attractive sight on the landscape of Corea. On 
August 18, 1900, Corea being now an empire, he was by imperial 
decree raised to the rank of Wang, or King. He will ever be re- 
membered by the Coreans as one of the most powerful personalities 
in the modern history of their nation. According to traditional 
usage, Corean princes cannot hold office, and for that reason many 
of them decline the title, in order to avoid the poverty which accept- 
ance of it brings, and get Government appointments to office with 
salary. The Tai-wen Kun, born in Seoul, January 22, 1811, 
made good use of his opportunity, which came both with his title 
and his office. Besides doing a great many bad things, to the 



THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE. 483 

injury of his country, he made some great improvements. He 
was, according to his lights, a statesman and a patriot, and he 
foresaw to some extent the designs of Russia. In methods he never 
rose above the atmosphere of the environment within which he 
had been educated. In person he was five feet six inches in height, 
but looked a leader of men. He was the great-grandson of one 
king, the nephew of another, and the father of a third. "He 
became the leader of the small remnant of the imperial clan left, 
and really preserved it from extinction." ^ 

The passing away of these two eminent characters, Queen Min 
and Tai-wen Kun,' marked the end of an era. 

^ See in the Korean Repository for July, 1898, a sketch of his life by Rev, 
G. H. Jones. 



CHAPTEE LII. 
JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 

From the night of the murder of his consort until his escape, 
four months later, to the Eussian legation, the sovereign of Corea 
was to all intents and purposes a prisoner in his own palace. Un- 
able to trust anybody and feeling in constant danger, he sought 
the American missionaries for food, for companionship, and even 
for protection.^ To him the new Government consisted of his 
jailers. The Corean people, sympathizing with their King, hated 
the Japanese all the more, for they felt that their sovereign was a 
virtual prisoner in the hands of the Tai-wen Kun and the pro- 
Japanese conspirators. Under these circumstances, he determined 
to break the palace jail. On the morning of February 11, 1896, 
according to a plan elaborated by the women and arranged with 
the Eussians, he entered one of the ordinary box chairs in which 
female servants are carried. A few minutes later, pale and 
trembling, the King of Corea knocked at the north gate of the lega- 
tion of Eussia and was promptly admitted. It has been insisted 
that " no Eussian had been to the palace or near it, nor had any 
Eussian been to any of the public offices," yet by some curious 
coincidence the Eussian legation guards had been increased on the 
evening of the 10th by nearly one hundred men from the Czar's 
men-of-war at Chemulpo. Furthermore, the Eussians welcomed 
not only the King but later also the Crown Prince and the Queen 
Dowager. 

His Majesty was scarcely within the walls of his new shelter 
before he issued an edict against his " rebel cabinet," ordering his 
soldiers to " cut off their heads at once and bring them," but in the 
afternoon another edict decreed that the six traitors should be de- 
graded and delivered to the courts for trial. This royal order was 
the signal for another outburst of riot, savagery, and bloodshed. 
The Corean prime minister and the Minister of Agriculture were 

* See Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, by L. H. Underwood (1904). 
484 



JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 485 

killed and their corpses mutilated and dragged round the streets. 
The prisons were emptied and the innocent and guilty alike re- 
leased. Sixty-six Japanese, mostly workmen on the telegraphs, 
were murdered and the line partially destroyed. 

The pro-Japanese part}^, beginning with the bloody morning 
of October 8, 1895, when Queen Min was murdered, had been in 
power during four months, during which time a tremendous blow 
was dealt to the prestige of Japan in Corea. For eleven months 
the King transacted the national business in the Eussian legation 
buildings, going only occasionally to the palace to give audiences 
to the foreign envoys. One of these from the Mikado presented a 
claim of indemnity for $146,000 for his subjects slain during the 
riot. 

The flight of C oreads sovereign was like that pictured in the 
proverb " from the frying pan into the fire.^^ In fierce reality, it 
was escape from bloody to inky tyranny, from an iron to a silken 
chain ; but in both cases it was humiliation and slavery. While the 
guest of the Eussians, the King paid well his bill as tenant by sign- 
ing a concession to his hosts, permitting them to cut timber " in 
the Yalu valley." The Eussian Government liberally interpreted 
this document, according to the vast scale of Muscovite geography, 
as meaning the whole basin drained by the Yalu and its tributaries, 
that is, a region half as large as Corea. The Eussians thus ob- 
tained for a year's rent of part of their legation buildings a lien 
on Corean property valued at fifty millions of dollars. 

Eevolutions do not go backward, and the general proceeding of 
the Government was along the line of progress. The external re- 
forms are particularly noticeable in the capital, in which Corean 
officers trained in Washington have greatly improved the streets, 
the methods of cleaning and the drainage. The police and soldiery 
were uniformed and disciplined, and preparations made for a 
national census. The untrustworthy ^^ census " of Seoul showed a 
population of 144,626 in 27,527 houses, and in the suburbs 75,189 
in 18,093 houses, or a total of 219,815, and of houses 45,350, in 
which district are 36 Buddhist temples with 442 priests and 204 
nuns. The original width of the streets, as laid out in 1392, of 55 
feet, has been regained over many miles of the city thoroughfares. 
Foreign trade steadily increased. American capital and energy 
helped to make what was once one of the filthiest and most unpro- 



486 COREA. 

gressive cities of the Far East a clean and attractive place, bright 
with electric lights and railway and modern water-works. A rail- 
road was built from the seaport to the capital and opened for 
traffic September 1, 1899. The steel bridge, made at Chattanooga, 
Tenn., spanning the Han Eiver is nearly a mile long. The electro- 
liers give light to the palace and to part of the city of Seoul. The 
trolley line, besides traversing the city, runs to the mausoleum of 
the Queen, which has been built in superb style. There her scant 
remains, escorted by a vast procession characterized in all its feat- 
ures by the old barbaric grandeur of Corea, were laid with appro- 
priate ceremonies. 

In the spring of 1896 the Independence Club, with a member- 
ship of over 2,000, was formed. It was composed entirely of natives 
actively interested in social and material development as well as 
in the independence of Corea. On October 31st the cornerstone 
of Independence Arch was laid on a site but a few yards distant 
from the old Chinese Gate under which the ambassadors of China 
had for centuries received the vassalage of the Corean sovereign. 
It is a structure in stone, alike of architectural beauty and of 
political significance. The subsequent history of this club and of 
the general movement, in which the publication of a daily news- 
paper in both English and native script. The Korean Independ- 
ent, were prominent features, is not a happy one. It showed 
clearly that independence or freedom must be something more 
than a word, in order to bring forth the fruits seen in America 
or among the nations that have most cultivated liberty, safeguarded 
by law. In this Seoul movement the seed may have been good, 
but good and well prepared soil did not exist. Eock, brambles, and 
the beaten road of bad precedent, in which Corea is so rich, received 
the sower's hopes. The movement ended in sedition or evaporated. 
Nevertheless, it was vastly better than the Seoul mobs that so often 
dictated imperial policy to the ministers of the Government. As 
late as May, 1902, the former members of the Independence Club 
were being arrested and executed. More promising in ultimate 
results was the celebration on September 2d of the forty-fifth birth- 
day of the King by a great gathering of Corean Christians in the 
pavilion near the old Chinese Gate. 

After a stay of one year and nine days, the King left his Eus- 
sian quarters and took up his residence in the new palace of Kyeng- 



JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 487 

wun, built in 1896 in the western part of the city, where are gath- 
ered the foreign legations and residences, some of them very hand- 
some and substantial. 

Corea, being now free and independent, between the two great 
empires of Japan and China, and Corean conceit of national his- 
tory and antiquity, real or supposed, being never at any time lack- 
ing, it was thoroughly appropriate and financially very profitable 
for the yangban and palace officials to take measures to proclaim 
the once *' little outpost state " an " empire," and their sovereign 
an "emperor." Besides suffering from imperialism in an acute 
form, the Corean office-holders knew well the significance of this 
nominally political act, in relation to their own fortunes; for in 
the assumption of the King of Corea of the title of Emperor, 
$100,000 was taken out of the treasury to celebrate the event, most 
of which, as a matter of course, went into the pockets of the King's 
faithful servants. His Majesty protested in vain against the pro- 
ceedings, but finally yielded gracefully. At 3 a.m. on October 12, 
1896, with great pomp and state, before the altars of the Spirits 
of the Land, the King assumed the title of Emperor of Ta Han, 
or the Great Han — in distinction from the ancient San Han. 
" The King is dead, long live the Emperor." 

This, too, was the time of Eussia's political dominance, when a 
Eussian military commission of fourteen were drilling the Corean 
military and when the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Seoul and 
the Eussian envoy, Mr. Speyer, signed an agreement, November 
5th, by which Dr. McLeavy Brown, the Englishman in charge of 
the national finances — able, faithful, and unterrified — should be 
ousted and a Eussian, Mr. Kuril Alexieff, put in his place. Mr. 
Brown's contract not having expired, he refused to vacate his post, 
and a large British and Japanese fleet having appeared off Che- 
mulpo, he was able to maintain his ground. The three countries, 
Eussia, Great Britain, and Japan, made an agreement that Mr. 
Brown should remain in office and that a Eussian and a Japanese 
commissioner of customs should share in the collection of foreign 
duties at the ports. On December 23, 1897, a telegram was re- 
ceived from the Czar of Eussia recognizing the Emperor of Corea, 
whereat the imperial party in Seoul was greatly elated. This 
whole incident illustrates the rather theatrical methods of Eus- 
sian diplomacy in Corea during the past twenty years, showing 



488 COREA. 

how entirely her interests were military and strategic, but not 
commercial, she having usually scarcely a score, and never at any 
time a hundred, of subjects in the empire commercially engaged, 
and only a few fishermen who are whale hunters on the coast. 
One Baron Guntzburg was busy as a promoter of Russian inter- 
ests, and the wife of the Russian minister was not inactive in social 
affairs and even as an influencer of political action. 

It was not long before there were signs of a popular reaction 
against Russia. On January 32, 1898, an attempt was made to 
assassinate Kim, the native Russian interpreter. By March 10th 
this feeling had taken form in a great anti-Russian demonstration, 
which ended in the apparently total though not real withdrawal of 
Russian influence in the peninsula. The military commission soon 
after departed and the Russo-Corean Bank was closed. After 
much excitement, Russia and Japan, on April 25th, agreed on a 
modus vivendi, both recognizing the sovereignty of Corea and 
engaging to refrain from direct interference in her internal affairs. 
N'o military or financial adviser was to be nominated without 
mutual agreement, and Russia bound herself not to impede the 
commercial relations between Japan and Corea. It was evident 
(probably in large measure on account of Russia's new interests 
in Manchuria) that she considered Corea for the present beyond 
her sphere of influence. No serious revival of the claims of Russia 
to any part of Corea were made again openly until 1903. When 
the correspondence between Tokio and St. Petersburg, leading to 
the war of 1904, opened, the ambitions of Russia were seen to be 
serious and all-embracing. 

The first year of the Corean empire was completed after the 
celebration of the King's birthday with unusual demonstrations 
of loyalty. The founder's day (that of Ki-tsze, or Ki-ja, whose 
tomb and temple are at Ping-an and which suffered during the 
war of 1894) and the 506th anniversary of the establishment of 
the dynasty, as well as the celebration of the coronation, were 
honored with unusual demonstrations, including the illumina- 
tion of the capital. This year was noted for a revival of Con- 
fucianism among the yangban. Buddhism having already enjoyed 
a "recrudescence" — both systems being galvanized into a simili- 
tude of life by the powerful induction, and evidences, both in 
leaven and bloom, of the new faith. On the whole, the year 1898 



JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 489 

was characterized by an intense conservative reaction in the Gov- 
ernment and by an absence of important diplomatic or political 
events, except the chronic local rebellions in the provinces and 
the plots of rivals and partisans in the capital. Notwithstanding 
that the solar calendar had been adopted in 1895, and had been 
officially observed, the people still celebrate New Year's Day with 
a fortnight of oldtime rejoicings, merrymakings, and customs 
according to the lunar calendar. 

The year 1899 was one of comparative quiet in the capital and 
provinces. During the Boxer agitation in China, there was danger 
of eruptions across the border which were duly guarded against, 
and a Russian escort of fifty soldiers to the refugee Danish mis- 
sionaries from China was given free passage. Corea virtually 
joined the allies marching to Peking, by giving aid and comfort 
in the form of a thousand bags of cleaned rice, two thousand bags 
of flour, and several hundred cases of cigarettes. 

In August, 1899, the written constitution of the kingdom was 
issued, the nine articles of which declare the absolute power of 
the King. It cannot be said that either the Coreans, the foreign 
diplomatic corps, or the world at large took this giving of a con- 
stitution as a very serious matter. To the special "imperial" 
envoy despatched from Seoul to Tokio, Japan flatly refused to 
promise the complete neutrality of Corea. Nevertheless, Corean 
subjects are expected to bow down and worship (either in the old 
English sense of the term or with more profound significance) the 
picture of the Emperor as in other pagan or semi-civilized countries. 
A memorial tablet and pagoda " to commemorate the virtues of his 
Majesty " was begun — on a day significant in the West — April 1, 
1902. These will be in the main street at the junction of Palace 
Street in Seoul. 

It was noted as a great event in the history of a country that 
has never given very serious attention to its high-roads, that Dr. 
W. B. Magill, an American missionary, drove a horse and carriage 
from Gensan to Seoul. A system of lighthouses was decided upon 
October 31, 1901. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the Emperor^s birthday was cele- 
brated December 7th, silver commemorative medals being given to 
each guest at the palace. A Corean band of musicians, trained by 
Mr. Franz Eckhart, a German, who arrived in the country February 



490 COEEA. 

19, 1901, played two pieces of foreign music very creditably to 
themselves and their instructor. On July 1, 1902, the Corean 
national hymn, an adaptation by Franz Eckhart, was published. 
This German musician had already made a good record in Japan. 

On May 30, 1902, the Emperor entered the Society of the Hall 
of Aged Men, having completed the first year of the sixth decade 
of his life (51 years), the foreign representatives being entertained 
at breakfast. Prominent among these, in influence and ability, was 
the American minister. Dr. Horace Newton Allen, born in Dela- 
ware, Ohio, in 1868, and resident in Corea since the summer of 
1884, when he introduced modern methods of healing and surgery. 
He accompanied the first legation of Cho-sen in Washington. 
There he was appointed secretary to the American legation in 
Seoul, and since 1890 has been the chief guardian of American 
interests in Corea, being made minister in July, 1896. During 
the time of the Boxer insurrection in China, when the movement 
threatened to spread into Corea, he was especially alert in precau- 
tionary measures of safety. Previous to the outbreak of the 
Russo-Japanese war, he secured the presence of a guard of Amer- 
ican marines in Seoul by which American rights, personal and 
commercial, were thoroughly secured. 

Events during the year 1903 showed a steady movement toward 
an inevitable end and pointed to the impending crisis between Rus- 
sia and Japan. The situation in Seoul was dominated by Yi Yong 
Ik and Yi Keun Tak, who were in close communication with Port 
Arthur and the Russian authorities at that place. Their high- 
handed financial and other schemes, in opposition to the Japanese 
efforts at securing a stable currency, came to naught after severe 
pecuniary loss to natives and foreigners and the serious disturbance 
of trade. The Russians, on April 11, 1901, had secured a twenty- 
year extension of timber cutting and prosecuted vigorously their 
advances in the north. They now refused to allow the Corean 
Government any supervision over their work of denuding the for- 
ests in the Yalu valley. In May one of the Czar's gunboats anch- 
ored in the harbor of Yongampo, which the Russians called Port 
Nicholas, and soon after began what were believed to be fortifica- 
tions. A guard of twenty-six Russian marines reinforced the lega- 
tion in Seoul, shortly after the violation by Russia of her pledge 
to evacuate Manchuria. A serious riot in November between 



JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 491 

Nipponese and Muscovite soldiers at Chemulpo foreshadowed the 
impending clash on a large scale in 1904. During December 
Eussia's influence at Seoul blocked all attempts of the foreign 
representatives to have Wiju (Ai-chiu) opened as a port of 
trade. 

At this stage in the nation's history, the once white-coated 
hermits who had hitherto lived under their own top-knots, and 
often under hats that were as big as a haycock, began numerously 
to go abroad as students. Scores of them have been in America 
and Europe and hundreds in Japan. In December, 1902, a party 
of nearly one hundred emigrants, men, women, and children, started 
for Hawaii. All of these were admitted, except eight who were 
sent back because of contagious eye disease. Other incidents 
showed healthful movement in a long-stagnant mass of population. 
Light and vision are coming to a people blind to nearly everything 
modern. 

Of all the moral and reformatory forces at work, that of active 
Christianity leads. The missionary pioneers, Allen, Underwood, 
Scranton, Appenzeller, Heron, Gale, Jones, Hulbert, and others, 
mastered the language and opened the treasures of native litera- 
ture and history. Already the list of aids to the vernacular and of 
their writings descriptive of country and people is a very respect- 
able one. These works, the fruit of earnest toil, contrast superbly 
in the quality of truthfulness with the sketchy and ephemeral writ- 
ings of tourists and hasty travellers. With other scholars and civil 
servants of various governments, they sustain the editor in fur- 
nishing the richly freighted pages of the Korea Review, and have 
formed the Korea Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, from which 
already several creditable volumes of " Transactions '' have ap- 
peared to delight the serious student, who values perspective and 
tone in his mind-pictures of this once hermit nation. 

Already the representatives of the Christian brotherhoods of 
English-speaking peoples have their row of graves in which sleep 
heroes, veterans, and some who " fell at the first fire.'^ Beginning 
in 1884, their prospective celebration of a double decennial, in 
September, 1904, was postponed under the clouds of war. Besides 
healing and helping, translating the Scriptures, and teaching the 
great uplifting truths which centre around the idea of one living 
and true God, gathering thousands of souls into churches and fur- 



492 COREA. 

nishing Gospel nurture;, they have taught the natives the grand 
lesson of self-support and self-propagation through a first-hand 
knowledge of the Bible. War, persecution, and manifold trials 
have tested and proved the quality of the converts, who in sincerity 
and power to stand in the midst of temptations are perhaps second 
to none in any field. 

It was evident at the opening of the year 1904 that Japanese 
armies were once again to tread the soil of Corea, this time the 
war being not between China and Japan, but between Japan and 
Eussia. Against the Colossus of the North and Eussian rapacity, 
the Island Empire had a long list of grievances. As far back as 
1861 a Eussian man-of-war had, not without shedding the blood 
of its defenders, landed marines on the Island of Tsushima. There 
they had planted seed and begun the formation of a settlement 
looking to permanent occupation. In those days of hermitage, 
weakness, and fear, nothing could be done by the Japanese author- 
ities at Yedo ; but Katsu Awa, the Shogun's most far-seeing states- 
man, called the attention of the British minister at Peking to 
this invasion, and a British naval force was sent to compel the 
Eussians to retire. A few years later Eussia took possession of 
Saghalien, after the usual preliminary of " Joint occupation," com- 
pelling the Japanese to be satisfied with the Kurile Islands below 
50° 56' of north latitude. This was in the year 1875, but long 
before that, Japanese statesmen, especially Okubo, had penetrated 
the designs of Eussia. The formation, out of feudal elements, of 
her national army in 1871 and the first of this character since the 
twelfth century, was largely with a view of defending Japan against 
Eussian and other aggressions. On the return of the Japanese 
embassy from its trip round the world in 1873, Okubo, Kido, and 
others opposed the Corean war project (as we have seen in Chap- 
ter XLVII), because a war with Corea then meant playing into 
Eussians hands. Something of the popular fear of Eussia over 
the Japanese nation, which hung like an advancing black cloud, 
was seen in the attack by a fanatical policeman on the Crown 
Prince, now the Czar of Eussia, during his visit to Japan in 1891, 
but the Government in Tokio, even in the person of the Mikado, 
besides making ample apology, scrupulously maintained propriety 
in all dealings with Eussia, at home and in Corea, living on terms 
of perfect friendship. It was therefore a stunning disappoint- 



JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 493 

ment, though a not wholly unexpected procedure, when Eussia, in 
1895, summoning to her aid the French and Germans, deprived 
the Japanese of the fruits of their victories in the war with China, 
by compelling the islanders to relinquish all territory on the main- 
land of Asia, and to be content with Formosa and an indemnity. 
Exhausted as they were by the war with China, yet had the Japa- 
nese been possessed of five battle-ships, they would have declared 
war upon Eussia as an abominable intermeddler and aggressor. 
The force of circumstances required them to swallow their humili- 
ation, but as the Japanese, any more than certain Christian 
nations, never forgive an injury, they began immediately to gird 
themselves for the coming and inevitable struggle with the Power 
that seemed bent upon their destruction. When the Boxer upris- 
ing in 1899 called forth the military energies of eight nations, the 
Japanese Government at first held back, lest its motives in being 
too forward might be questioned. When finally urged to lead the 
van of the allied armies of rescue, Japan sent 21,000 of her ablest 
and best equipped soldiers into the campaign. Their experiences 
on the march to Peking were invaluable to the Japanese, for 
through becoming comrades with the mujiks in the camps and on 
the battle-field, they learned that they had nothing to fear from 
such foes when arrayed against them in anything like an equality 
of numbers in war. The Japanese officer found himself a modern 
man in the presence of his equals, who were men steeped in 
mediaeval methods of thought. 

Steadily enlarging their navy and perfecting in every detail 
arms, ammunition, field equipment, army hygiene, and the physical 
development of their soldiers, the Japanese determined to stand 
for their rights, even though this might seem like Jack challeng- 
ing the giant. No longer hermits on an island, w^hich, having 
but a small fraction of arable fertile soil, could not feed its in- 
habitants, so that population had to remain stationary, the Japa- 
nese had become a nation of traders and manufacturers, with an 
annual increase of population of over 500,000 a year, with a total 
population of fifty millions, and with a foreign trade that had 
increased 543 per cent since 1890, with a total export trade con- 
sisting of 84.6 per cent of manufactured articles. With nearly 
thirty thousand Japanese subjects in Corea, most of them married 
and with homes, and with 10,000 of their people in Manchuria, 



494 COREA. 

they took an interest in the affairs of Corea and Manchuria which 
was not like that of the Eussians, chiefly military and strategic, 
but which, on the contrary, was commercial and vital. During the 
Boxer troubles, Kussia sent a large army into Manchuria and 
finally took possession of the whole of that portion of the Chinese 
Empire. She promised solemnly to all the governments interested, 
to vacate the country on the 9th of October, 1903. 

The world knows how this promise was broken. The corre- 
spondence between Tokio and St. Petersburg reveals the exasperat- 
ing delays of the Eussian Government, and its intention not only to 
remain permanently in Manchuria but to prevent if possible Japan 
from having anything to do with the matter. Eussia even desired 
" recognition by Japan that Manchuria is outside her sphere of 
special interest^' and requested a mutual engagement to establish 
" a neutral zone on the Corea-Manchuria frontier, extending fifty 
kilometers each side into which neutral zone neither of the con- 
tracting parties shall introduce troops without the consent of the 
other," and "the engagement on the part of Japan not to under- 
take on the coast of Corea any military works capable of menacing 
the freedom of navigation in the straits of Corea." 

In a word, what Japan claimed is, that " Japan has a perfect 
right to demand that the independence and territorial integrity of 
China shall be respected and the rights and interests of Japan in 
that region shall be formally guaranteed." 

After innumerable delays and the situation growing more seri- 
ous every day, the Eussians continually reinforcing their naval 
and military forces in the far East, Mr. Kurino, the Mikado's 
minister to St. Petersburg, having waited for an answer since the 
13th of January, called on Count Lamsdorff at 8 p.m. February 
4th for a definite reply, which was not forthcoming. Finding 
that in all probability there would be no changes in Eussia's claims 
of control over Manchuria and her demand for " a buffer region 
between confines of direct influence and action of the two coun- 
tries in the far East," being out of the question, the Japanese 
legation was on the 10th of February withdrawn from St. Peters- 
burg and war began. 

The Eussians were already on Corean soil with three hundred 
Cossacks guarding their timber cutters on the left bank of the 
Yalu Eiver. Since June, 1903, they had reinforced their army 



i 



JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT. 495 

with 40,000 men and their navy with 26 vessels, ranging from 
battle-ship to torpedo boat, thus adding 83,000 tons to their sea 
power. Five days before, the Russian commander at Vladivostok 
had notified the Japanese commercial agent that a state of siege 
might be declared at any moment. With steam up, decks cleared 
for action, and search-lights in use for night work, the Russian 
seamen instantly replied to the fire and torpedoes of Admiral 
Togo's attack. The Japanese thus anticipated a naval raid from 
the Russians, which was afterwards successfully carried out from 
Vladivostok. To the Czar's advisers in Europe actual war may 
have come as a surprise. It did not come thus to his servants in 
the far East. Nevertheless, within three days after the rupture of 
peaceful relations the Russian war ships Variag and Koreetz had 
been sunk outside of the harbor of Chemulpo by the guns of Admiral 
IJriu and an army landed to begin its march northward. At 
Port Arthur three battle-ships and four cruisers had been sunk 
or damaged by Admiral Togo's torpedoes. The first idea of the 
Japanese was to eliminate the sea power of Russia from the scene 
of the seat of war. Landing her armies in Corea, at Chemulpo, the 
march was made without serious opposition, until near Wiju, the 
Mikado's hosts once more stood on the banks of the Yalu, the Rubi- 
con of eastern Asia, confronting the forces of the White Czar. 

Meanwhile, a new protocol between Japan and Corea was 
signed, in March, 1904, in which the stronger Power bound itself 
to reform the weaker country without annexing it and to protect 
it without impairing its sovereignty. Corea pledged herself, as 
distinctly under Japan's protection, to repose confidence in and to 
accept advice from the Japanese Government, and to make no 
agreement with a third Power which might seem to contravene the 
principles of the protocol. This document made Japan the cham- 
pion of Corean independence, and is in spirit and letter the 
antipodes of Russia's action in Manchuria. 

The new model army in Asia, and the most modern of all 
armies, was in its fitness of body and mind to cope with the prob- 
lems of war in the twentieth century, the creation of the public 
schools of Japan. These soldiers, both veterans and youth, set a 
new standard of resourceful valor, celerity of movement, temper- 
ance in living, ability to endure hunger and hardship, and of self- 
abnegation in the presence of death. To a Japanese patriot, life, 



496 COREA. 

apart from duty, has no value. On the 1st of May, this " public 
school army," under Kuroki, having crossed the "Yalu under fire, 
won a brilliant victory, capturing many guns and prisoners. They 
had met European troops and beaten them in fair fight. 

Then began the Japanese march through the old Border Gate 
and Feng- Wang Chang or Phoenix Castle, and over the mountain 
range dividing the Yalu from the Liao valley. The fortified 
passes were one after the other carried in victorious assault, and 
in the early days of September both Eussian and Japanese main 
armies were marshalled before Liao Yang city, southwest of the 
ruins of the ancient Corean stronghold, for one of the great 
decisive battles of modern times and perhaps of human history. 

During this time other armies were landed in Manchuria and 
by May 15th Oku was in possession of the railway leading to 
Port Arthur. Dalny was occupied May 26th, and later Yinkow 
and Niu Chwang came under the sun banner. On August 25th 
Field-Marshal Oyama took command of all the Japanese forces 
and the armies of Kuroki, Nodzu, and Oku. 

After the great pitched battle in the early days of September, 
the Mikado's flag floated over Liao Yang, and Kuropatkin fell 
back on Mukden, in masterly retreat. 

From Port Arthur, girdled by a wall of fire and under a rain 
of shells, the Czar's battle-ships and cruisers made desperate efforts 
to escape, only to be sunk, driven back, or, torn and riven, to seek 
shelter in the ports of China, and elsewhere, their presence giving 
rise to perplexing questions in international diplomacy. 

As we close again, in the autumn of a.d. 1904, our story of 
the once " hermit nation," the Japanese, confronted with the prac- 
tical difficulties of assuming a real protectorate over Corea, while 
nominally but sincerely striving to maintain her independence, are 
still determined to control the peninsula as a vital possession. 
One hundred miles of the Seoul-Fusal railway are in operation. 
The sound of the blasting night and day in the deep rock-cuts 
near Seoul announce their purpose to finish speedily a highway of 
steel to the Chinese frontier. The real purpose of the war is the 
integrity of China, upon which depends the safety of Japan, per- 
haps even the political salvation of Asia. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

COREA A JAPANESE PROTECTORATE. 

Hayikg been responsible for two great foreign wars fought by 
Japan, it was natural that at the end of each campaign the position 
of Corea among nations should be notably altered. The war with the 
Middle Kingdom blew to pieces the Chinese doctrine of universal 
sovereignty, besides making the once vassal state independent. 
In name, at least, Corea was made an empire. The war with 
Eussia annihilated the dogma so long held in Europe, that Asiatic 
nations exist for conquest and spoliation, with the corollary that 
" the break-up of China " was imminent. Japanese success in the 
war of 1894-95 was a vindication of the American doctrine as 
expounded by men from the United States during a century, and 
formulated by John Hay- — " China for the Chinese." 

Had Corea been a state fitted, by the power of unselfish patriot- 
ism and love of industry among her leaders, to survive amid mod- 
ern political and economic conditions, Japan's triumph over Russia 
would have made her all the stronger. Her independence would 
have been assured, had the virtue of her own sons responded to 
the opportunity. 

On the contrary, the history of Corea since 1866, as outlined 
on these pages, reveals the fatal weakness of the ruling class in 
Corea. Instead of giving themselves to patriotic sacrifice and 
personal industry, the yang-ban, or men of privilege, have made 
their capital a hot-bed of intrigue and Corea the storm centre of 
the Far East. Instead of developing their own strength and the 
nation's resources, they have plied the arts of cunning and the 
crafts of the weak. Yet modern civilization, rich in powerful 
governments, has no place for the weak. Least of all is self- 
chosen weakness allowable. 

Being neither skilful merchants like the Chinese, nor brave 
warriors like the Japanese, the Corean noblemen — on whom lies 

497 



498 COEEA. 

the burden of responsibility — might at least have imitated the 
good example of their island neighbors. In Japan the outstand- 
ing event of modern times was the renunciation, in 1871, by 
400,000 knights or gentry, of their hereditary pensions paid out of 
the public treasury/ After this sacrifice, made in the interests of 
true patriotism, they put off their swords and silk petticoats, got 
to work, paid taxes, and began to earn an honest living. Even 
China has broken with her unsocial past and conceit of perfection, 
and has entered upon the path of modern civilization. 

The Corean yang-ban abused their independence by intrigue. 
They failed to discern that the petty arts of the plotter endangered 
their existence as a nation. After her second great war, Japan 
saw clearly that to allow her neighbor state, wherein there was no 
sharp distinction between the Court and the Government, to 
remain, as of old, the hot-bed of intrigue, would jeopard her own 
existence. She therefore did for Corea what Great Britain has 
done for Egypt, the United States for Cuba, and the French for 
Annam. Corea is now numbered among protectorates. 

When our narrative closed in September, 1904, the Japanese 
were building a trunk line of railroad, nearly six hundred miles 
long, which should traverse the whole peninsula from Eusan to 
Wiju (Ai-chiu, pp. 181, 364). Port Arthur had not surrendered. 
The real goal of the Japanese armies, the city of Mukden, con- 
taining the mausoleums of the Manchiu dynasty now ruling in 
Peking, "the possession of which would put the heart of China in 
the palm of Japan's hand," was yet unreached. Yet those who 
in the early seventies had helped to train the boys who made the 
public-school army of Japan, had no fear of its ultimate triumph.* 

On the 3d of January, 1905, Port Arthur was formally surren- 
dered, and its evacuation completed January 7th. The main 
Japanese army fronting Mukden was quickly reenf orced by Nogi's 
division on the left, or west, and by Kawamura's army, out of 
Corea, on the right, or east. The great campaign of hard fighting, 
destined to last nearly a month, opened amid a snow-storm on the 
23d of February. By the 28th the fighting was general along /the 
whole front of nearly one hundred miles. On the 10th of March 

1 See ''The Mikado's Empire," pp. 533-535, and p. 682, of the eleventh edi- 
tion, 1906, for the five points of prediction made at Hartford, Conn,, February 
8, 1904. 



COEEA A JAPANESE PROTECTORATE. 499 

Oku's columns entered, by the southern gate, the city of Mukden. 
The Eussians lost nearly thirty thousand in dead and over forty 
thousand prisoners. The Japanese pursuit northward lasted until 
April 14th. 

On the 27th and 28th of March "the battle of The Sea of 
Japan " took place, in which the Eussian armada of thirty-eight 
modern ships of war was, " by the grace of Heaven and the help of 
the gods," annihilated. 

By invitation of President Eoosevelt, the envoys of the two 
warring nations, de Witte and Eosen for Eussia, and Komura and 
Takahira for Japan (both of the latter the writer's former pupils in 
Tokio), met at Portsmouth, N. H. ; whence, in the thirties, had 
sailed Captain Edmund Eoberts, commissioned by President Jack- 
son, and the first American diplomatist in the Far East. The 
Japanese won a signal diplomatic victory, securing the main 
points of their contention. 

The peace treaty which was signed recognized in the first 
article Japan's predominant position in Corea, political, military, 
economic, as well as her right to supervise that country's affairs 
and to protect it, Eussia agreeing not to obstruct Japan's pro- 
ceedings in any respect. .One of the first and worst results for 
Corea was the immediate entrance within her borders of a horde 
of low-class, insolent Japanese adventurers, who, by their cruelties 
and spoliations of natives, nearly neutralized the well-meant plans 
of good men in Tokio. 

Following up the results of the decisive war, the Mikado sent 
his highly honored servant. Baron Komura, to Peking to arrange 
matters amicably with China, and then turned his attention to 
Corea. The protocol of March, 1904 (p. 495), had been quickly 
followed by the abolition of the Pedlers' Guild (so long used by 
pro-Eussian intriguers) and by the visit of Marquis Ito, who bore a 
reassuring message of fraternity and good-will. Mr. I. Megata, 
one of the most experienced and skilful ofiicers of the Treasury 
Department in Tokio, was sent to Seoul as financial adviser, and 
Mr. Durham Dwight Stevens, an American gentleman, who united 
ability and tact to long and varied experience in diplomacy in the 
Far East, accepted the post of assistant at the Corean Foreign 
OflSce. These gentlemen, like all their predecessors, encountered 
insuperable difficulties in dealing with a government that was 



500 COEEA. 

nominally carried on at the Council Board, but in reality directed 
from the harem or by clan factions m secret intrigue. 

Occupied so seriously with other matters, few attempts were 
made at first by the Japanese Government in the interest of real 
reforms that could benefit the Corean people. Meanwhile, it must 
be repeated, tens of thousands of the Mikado's subjects, many of 
them of the most truculent temper and disreputable character, 
crowded into the peninsula, committing acts of rapine and brutal- 
ity which neutralized many of the best measures of wise states- 
men. When the proposition, approved of in Tokio, was made 
that all uncultivated land in the peninsula should be open to 
Japanese occupation and enterprise, and the water rights and 
supply be shared by these aliens, the Corean people, as a body, 
made systematic protest. All the circumstances considered, this 
sudden act of virtual spoliation was a colossal blunder. In the 
eyes of the Coreans it was not only "stealing water from an- 
other man's field" — so terrible a crime in lands of rice culture, 
where irrigation is a vital necessity — but the theft of the very soil 
itself. At once a storm of opposition arose that swept the penin- 
sula from end to end. The Corean Emperor was besieged with 
petitions to resist the Japanese demands. A society called Po-an, 
for the preservation of safety and peace, was formed, which met 
in Seoul in excited discussion, and began the propagation of what 
seemed to the Japanese authorities a campaign of sedition. The 
meetings of the Po-an were broken up by the police, and the Jap- 
anese garrison of Seoul was augmented to six thousand men. 
Though other Corean societies were formed, the excitement died 
out, the Japanese not pushing their scheme, the Corean noblemen 
showing little or no real patriotism, and the people little power 
of persistent unity. On October 13, 1904, General Hasegawa took 
control of the military situation. 

Yet it is the simple truth to state that while the Japanese 
soldier, superb in discipline and noble in human qualities, is 
respected by the Corean, the low Japanese, who so often proves 
himself a rascal, is feared and despised; It is unfortunate that 
these disreputable characters were so long under such slight con- 
trol from Tokio. On the other hand, notwithstanding that Japan, 
in the treaty of 1904, had guaranteed the independence of Corea, 
yet the Government in Seoul, choked by palace cl ques, languished 



COREA A JAPAT^ESE PROTECTORATE. 501 

in chronic feebleness. Unable to keep order at home, to pay its 
legation bills abroad, or to separate itself from that " Forbidden 
Interior " of mystery in the boudoir inhabited by a mob of women, 
eunuchs and hangers-on, which curses China, Corea, and so long 
cursed old Japan in both Yedo and Kioto, what guarantee was 
there for the peace of Asia and the world ? For the preservation 
of this, the Mikado's Government was responsible, while every 
complication in Corea involved Japan also. 

After long deliberation, the statesmen in Tokio agreed that 
the surest exit out of the labyrinthine difficulty was to take 
charge of Corea's foreign relations and place a controller-general 
at the capital, with subordinates at the chief cities and seaports, 
leaving internal affairs to be directed from Seoul. The Mikado 
despatched Marquis Ito — "patient, able, and authoritative" — to 
Seoul. 

On the 17th of November, 1905, the Corean Emperor's min- 
ister, Pak Che Soon, and the Mikado's representative, Hayashi, 
signed a treaty, of which the following is the official translation 
into English : 

The Governments of Japan and Corea, desiring to strengthen the principle of 
solidarity which unites the two 'Empires, have with that object in view agreed 
upon and concluded the following stipulations to serve until the moment arrives 
when it is recognized that Corea has attained national strength : — 

Article I. The Government of Japan, through the Department of Foreign 
Affairs at Tokio, will hereafter have control and direction of the external rela- 
tions and affairs of Corea, and the diplomatic and consular representatives of 
Japan will have the charge of the subjects and interests of Corea in foreign 
countries. 

Art. II. The Government of Japan undertake to see to the execution of the 
treaties actually existing between Corea and other Powers, and the Government 
of Corea engage not to conclude hereafter any act or engagement having an 
international character, except through the medium of the Government of Japan. 

Art III. The Government of Japan shall be represented at the Court of 
His Majesty the Emperor of Corea by a Resident General, who shall reside at 
Seoul, primarily for the purpose of taking charge of and directing matters 
relating to diplomatic affairs. He shall have the right of private and personal 
audience of His Majesty the Emperor of Corea. The Japanese Government 
shall also have the right to station Residents at the several open ports and such 
other places in Corea as they may deem necessary. Such Residents shall, under 
the direction of the Resident General, exercise the powers and functions hitherto 
appertaining to Japanese Consuls in Corea, and shall perform such duties as may 
be necessary in order to carry into full effect the provisions of this agreement. 



502 COKEA. 

Art. IV. The stipulations of all treaties and agreements existing between 
Japan and Corea not inconsistent with the provisions of this agreement shall 
continue in force. 

Art. V. The Government of Japan undertake to maintain the welfare and 
dignity of the Imperial House of Corea. 

In faith whereof the undersigned, duly authorized by the Governments, have 
signed this agreement and affixed their seals. 

[Signed] Hyashi Gonsdke, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. 

[Signed] Pak Che Soon, 

Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

November 17, 1905. 

Whatever may be tlie real history of the transfer thus made or 
the means taken to secure the document, it is certain that the 
governments of Europe and America were very prompt in with- 
drawing their legations from Seoul and in acknowledging Japan's 
supremacy. In Washington the minds of the President and Sec- 
retary of State were quickly made up, because of the local eccen- 
tricities of Corean envoys, unable to pay their grocery bills, and 
despite the representations of more than one private emissary. 
On the accession of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency by the 
election of the people and his change of diplomatic assistants, 
JVIinister Horace N. Allen, long our able representative in Seoul, 
was succeeded, in 1905, by Mr. Edwin Vernon Morgan, who had 
had experience in Samoa, Corea, Russia, and China. He being 
appointed to another position, the American legation in Seoul 
ceased, while the consul-general and consuls were retained as 
before. 

Meanwhile, under the energetic action of the Resident Gen- 
eral Ito, real reforms were inaugurated and disorderly Japanese 
characters arrested and either sent out of the country or made to 
give pledges for good behavior. The whole prospect of things 
brightened. 

At a banquet given in his honor by his countrymen in Seoul, 
April 8, 1906, the Marquis Ito spoke as follows : 

" According to what His Corean Majesty has repeatedly con- 
descended to say to me, I may be permitted to believe that I have 
the honor to enjoy his confidence and trust in no small measure. 
He has on more than one occasion been pleased to assure me that 
he wished to rely upon my loyal services for the regeneration of 



COREA A JAPANESE PROTECTORATE. 503 

the Corean Administration. His Majesty has also given orders to 
his Ministers to carry out this work of regeneration under my di- 
rection and guidance. As for the Corean Ministers, they have 
assured me of their determination to do their utmost to this end ; 
they say that an opportunity like the present will not occur again, 
and, as a matter of fact, they are now actively engaged in the 
work of regeneration." 

Apparently these words were as honestly applauded by the 
Corean Emperor's servants as they were believed to be true by 
the speaker himself. In mutual confidence, Corean military offi- 
cers were duly appointed, and both General Hasegawa and the 
Marquis Ito left with them for Japan, to witness the grand review 
of the returning victorious Japanese armies from Manchuria, 
which was held in Tokio April 30th. 

The opportunity for intrigue and conspiracy created by the 
absence of the two great men was too tempting to be lost by the 
factions of the boudoir and its inmates. The Corean Conserva- 
tive and Progressive parties kept warring among themselves, 
hatching plots in which even the emperor's privy councillors, 
palace eunuchs, and officers of the Imperial household were active. 
Two lines of policy looking to domestic and foreign disturbance 
were mapped out by the conspirators. One utilized the distress 
and almost chronic troubles in the southwestern provinces, the 
other was based on the hope of Russian intervention. The plot 
was planned by yang-ban in the palace itself. 

In Chung Chong Do (p. 194) a Min and in Chulla Do (p. 199) 
a Choi nobleman led the insurrections. Antiquated muskets, 
matchlocks, swords, and spears were laid in store against the Jap- 
anese. In Kang-wen Do (p. 208), also, troubles were reported. 
Tour police (out of the 350 then in all Corea) were sent from the 
Residency in Seoul, but they were killed or driven away. The 
Corean provincial troops being supine, two companies of Japanese 
infantry were sent to the city. Attacking in daylight in order to 
spare the peaceful non-combatants, the soldiers blew up the gates 
with dynamite. After some street fighting the city was in the 
hands of the military, 69 Coreans being killed and 145 made 
prisoners. It was hoped that this affair would end further insur- 
rection. 

But in a land so long governed by the sorcerer, where the 



504: COKEA. 

means of communication are slight and the people lack education 
and mental initiative, news travels slowly. Choi, in the more 
southern city, held out. Murderous attacks on Japanese settlers 
and fishermen continued. The Wi-pion party, representing invet- 
erate conservatism, sided with the insurgents, while the II Ohing- 
hoi, or Liberal Progressive, set to work to unearth evidence and 
expose the Conservative plotters. Giving information at the Eesi- 
dency in Seoul, five high officers, Kim, Choi, Min, Hong, etc., of 
the Corean Court or Government, including a eunuch, were ar- 
rested. The twofold plan, first, to make the world believe that 
the whole Corean people was opposed to the Japanese protector- 
ate, and second, to enlist Eussian cooperation, was exposed. One 
immediate result of forcing the Japanese military hand was the 
quick surrender of Choi to Corean soldiers in Chulla Do. In his 
camp was found authorization from Seoul, sealed with the ver- 
milion seal of the palace, to raise troops. Thus collapsed the 
plot for internal disturbance.' 

The prospect of drawing Eussia again into hostilities which 
might free Corea from the Japanese yoke shows the weak spot in 
the Eusso-Chinese negotiations of Ignatieff in 1860 (p. 371). In 
the delimitation of frontiers then made, a strip of country con- 
taining nearly 3,000 square miles, called Han-do, or Island Circuit, 
between the Tumen and its affluent, the Hai-lan Eiver, which, be- 
ginning about seventy-five miles from the sea, flows nearly parallel, 
was left as neutral territory to be uninhabited. This region is 
shown on the maps (pp. 210, 365), and though the Chinese charac- 
ters describe an island, it is interfluvial only. In reality the land, 
being very fertile, did in course of time attract many settlers, both 
Chinese and Corean. When Eussia began to assert her strenuous 
policy in the Far East, she demanded that this neutral strip 
should be cleared of Coreans, or that all settlers in this region 
between the rivers should be enrolled as Chinese subjects. The 
Japanese War coming on in 1904, nothing further was done. 
Since Eussia, by the Portsmouth treaty, controls the railways of 
Kirin, she may by holding this region control the trade routes to 
the seaboard. 

^ See the long letter in the London Times of August 8, 1906, from an unim- 
peachable authority — the author of the Oriental Series, nearly forty years in the 
Far East. 



COREA A JAPANESE PROTECTORATE. 505 

Here then was the bait to make the Eussian bear bite. One 
of the Kims, an anti-Japanese ultra-conservative, secured a com- 
mission from the Corean Emperor appointing him virtually gov- 
ernor of this Hai-lan region. At Vladivostok, through the in- 
famous pro-Eussian Li Yong Ik and M. Pavloff, the late envoy of 
the Czar in Corea, the Court of St. Petersburg was to be sounded 
on the possibility of gaining control of this strategic territory. 

If it be asked, what ground of hope Kim Hseung-mun had 
of success, it must be remembered that while all other foreign 
consuls in Corea, under the new order of things, had received 
their exequaturs, or authorizations, from the Emperor of Japan, the 
new Eussian Consul-General, M. Plancon, claimed that he should 
be recognized by the Corean and not the Japanese emperor, thus 
ignoring Corea's denunciation of her old treaty with China and 
the convention of November 17, 1905. The Eussian envoy, for a 
little while or until he withdrew his contention, consciously or un- 
consciously, gave encouragement to the Corean conspirator, Kim. 
This whole plot to embroil Eussia and Japan was frustrated, get- 
ting no further than the palace, while the surrender of Choi in 
Chulla Do was made sure by the arrest, on the night of June 8th, 
of the chief conspirators as they were leaving the palace. The 
Liberals had turned state's evidence. 

Without impeaching the Corean Emperor, the Japanese Gov- 
ernment removed his evil advisers and resolved to persevere in 
using what authority he still possesses for the good of the Corean 
people — as their protectors see it. 

That policy requires the public finance of Corea to be known 
in ledgers and budgets, with strict accountability for every dollar ; 
the purging of the palace, and the thorough differentiation of 
Court and Government, and of the " boudoir " from the council 
table ; the creation of a public school system ; the building of a 
railway from Ping An to Gen san ; a coinage and stable monetary 
system; the reform of prison methods and the judiciary; the 
reclamation of the vast quantities of waste land ; the encourage- 
ment of all moral forces ; the development of trade, commerce, 
and industry ; and last, but not least, the severe handling of un- 
principled and truculent Japanese ; or, in general, a policy of 
righteousness and conciliation that must overcome the traditional 
hatred between the Coreans and the Japanese. To make the 



506 COREA. 

yang-ban get to work and earn their own living will be the great 
blessing to this long- oppressed land. If Japan can satisfy the 
enlightened judgment of the world that Corea is exploited for the 
good priii:iarily of the Coreans and not the Japanese, humanity 
will approve and rejoice. The accomplished author of "The 
Passing of Korea," which contains the severest arraignment of 
the Japanese thus far made, passes this verdict on the situation : 
" The Koreans have awakened to the fact that this, which 
should have been their first consideration many years ago, is now 
their last resort, and they are clamoring for education. . . . 
Korea can gain nothing by holding back and oifering to the plans 
of Japan a sulky resistance. They are face to face with a definite 
condition, and theories as to the morality of the forces which 
brought about the condition are wholly academic." 



CHAPTER LIV. 
cho-sen: a province of japan. 

Cho-sen is the official name of the country described in this 
volume and now a province of Japan, as declared in the Act of 
Annexation of August, 1910. Thus its oldest name, now to be 
better known to the world, is also its newest. Since 1392 the 
natives have known no other. The Chinese characters for Cho-sen, 
or Morning Calm, were stamped on the first and earlier editions of 
this book. The Japanese name of the capital is Keijo. 

By the Russo-Japanese war, Corea was saved from being a 
Russian province and the king and court given the supreme occa- 
sion of reform, which, if carried out, would mean new national life. 
Corea would have remained a sovereign state, had the chief ruler 
and the governing classes risen to their opportunity. 

It was not to be. With despotism in the palace and a lettered 
class bound in cast-iron traditions, but profoundly ignorant of the 
world and the century, there lay beneath an oppressed populace, 
steeped in superstition, for which the Government did nothing. 
Lacking an intelligent middle class between, reform in Corea, ex- 
cept from without, was perhaps morally impossible. 

Old Corea, an unreformed Oriental state, with all the features 
inseparably associated with such a society, was thus described by 
Lord Curzon in 1894: 

"A royal figure-head, enveloped in the mystery of the palace 
and the harem, surrounded by conceptric rings of eunuchs. Min- 
isters of State, officials and retainers, and rendered almost intangible 
by the predominant atmosphere of intrigue; a hierarchy of office- 
holders and office-seekers, who are leeches in the thinnest disguise; 
a feeble and insignificant army, an impecunious exchequer, a de- 
based currency, and an impoverished people — these are the in- 

507 



508 COREA. 

variable symptoms of the fast- vanishing regime of the older and 
unredeemed Oriental type. Add to these the first swarming of 
the flock of foreign practitioners who scent the enfeebled constitu- 
tion from afar and from the four winds of Heaven come pressing 
their pharmacopseia of loans, concessions, banks, mints, factories, 
and all the recognized machinery for filling Western purses at the 
expense of Eastern pockets, and you have a fair picture of Korea 
as she stands after ten years of emergence from her long seclusion 
and enjoyment of the intercourse of the nations." 

Corea as represented by the yang-ban, or ruling class, number- 
ing with their families 200,000 souls, was dragged suddenly out 
into the world's light and confronted with vital problems. With- 
out that long interior intellectual preparation which enabled Japan 
in the nick of time to meet her new duties, the Coreans were neither 
able nor willing to grapple with the colossal tasks awaiting them. 
Yet this was no fault of the plain people, for it is to their credit that 
they welcomed foreigners. Except a morbid curiosity as to alien 
persons and ways, they have ever shown kindness, and politeness 
so far as they knew it. With amazing promptness the spiritually 
hungry and thirsty masses have responded with grateful appre- 
ciation to what their foreign teachers brought them. One secret 
of their readiness and docility lies in the fact that they were 
glad to be delivered from the oppression of rulers, whose one 
idea of government meant the grinding of the people for private 
benefit. 

After the treaty of November 17, 1905, by which a Resident- 
General from Japan was established in Seoul, and which took con- 
trol of the foreign relations and affairs of the little kingdom, it 
was found that few of those who could have effected national re- 
form gave any indication of their desire' to do so. In 1907 a fresh 
agreement was made, " with the object of speedily providing for 
the wealth of Corea and of promoting its welfare," and the Japa- 
nese Government spent millions of dollars in schemes of practical 
advantage to the Coreans. When, after four years, it was found 
that the age-old abuses continued, and reform by natives seemed 
impossible, the formal annexation of Corea was consummated on 
August 29, 1910. The full text of the treaty, in eight articles, 
with preamble, etc., and English translation, is printed in the 



ch5-sen: a province of japan. 509 

Journal of International Laiv {Remie de Droit International) for 
December, 1910, published in Tokio. 

The Amalgamation Convention provides:* 

" (1) The Emperor of Corea shall concede to the Emperor of 
Japan the Corean sovereignty, together with all territorial rights. 

" (2) The Sovereign Imperial Household is to be treated as a 
quasi-Imperial Family of Japan, continuing to have the annual 
allowance of 1,500,000 yen, while members of the Imperial Family 
and meritorious persons of the country are to be created peers, or 
endowed with certain grants. 

"(3) The name Corea shall be changed into 'Cho-sen.' 

"(4) The Corean Cabinet being abolished, the Residency- 
General shall be changed into a government of Governor-General, 
w^hile as to the administrative business and customs tariff, there 
will be no change for the present." 

The cost to Japan of the amalgamation is estimated at yen^ 
30,000,000, or $15,000,000. Seventy-five Coreans of distinguished 
families were created peers of Japan, and the monetary grants in 
yen were conferred as follows: to a baron, 50,000; to a viscount, 
100,000; to a count, 150^000; and to a marquis, 200,000. As 
w^ith the kuge, or court nobles, to prevent waste, the principal is 
retained in the Imperial Treasury, and the interest promptly paid 
at frequent intervals. Provision has been made for other meri- 
torious persons, and the military conscription will not be put in 
force for ten years yet. Meanwhile, besides thousands of Corean 
students in Tokio, delegations of leading men and women of 
Cho-sen have visited and travelled in Japan. 

It has always been a sore spot with the Coreans that the 
United States refused to intervene, though in the first article of 
the treaty of May 22, 1882, promise was made that "if other 
Powers deal unjustly or oppressively with either Government, the 
other will exert their good offices, on being informed of the case, to 
Ibring about an amicable arrangement, thus showing their friendly 
feeling." Yet apart from the settled policy of non-intervention in 
the affairs of foreign nations, the United States was but one of 
several nations that, with a significant promptness and unanimity, 

» The Japan Mail, August 27, 1910. 



510 COREA. 

gladly called home their legations and handed over the control of 
Corea to Japan. 

There is nothing mysterious to the student in the loss of Corea's 
sovereignty and her absorption in the Japanese Empire. A sur- 
vey of her history and a view of the world's movement since 1866 
shows inexorably the law of cause and effect. It was the weakness 
of Corea to be not only shut off from the world, but in her hermitage 
so to exaggerate antiquity and its importance as to leave the nation 
helpless in the modern clash of civilizations, when Orient and 
Occident are meeting to merge into one world society. The first 
infirmity of the Coreans of insular mind arises from long contact 
with the history and literature of the Chinese. Stimulating to the 
intellect, this has paralyzed mental initiative and swamped orig- 
inality. The Corean imagined that China's was the beginning 
and end of all wisdom. Added to this was the delusion that a 
knowledge of letters was in itself suflScient to preserve both society 
and national sovereignty. 

Old Japan suffered frightfully, but not fatally, from the same 
disease. In Corea's case, this insanity of literary pride was ex- 
aggerated into a crime when, after 1392, the popular religion was 
ruthlessly destroyed, the people robbed of their teachers, and the 
country given over to superstition and ignorance by a Government 
which Lieutenant Foulk, in 1883, after prolonged tours within the 
country and study of the details of administration, declared was 
but armed robbery. 

There was no political or social unity in the Corean peninsula 
until the tenth century. The chief force iti welding together the 
various tribes and peoples into the astonishing unity and similarity 
now visible among the people and villages from Quelpart to the 
Ever White Mountain was Buddhism. The missionaries of this 
faith, coming from Thibet and China, gave the peninsulars art, 
architecture, literature, folk-lore, a noble path of morals for guid- 
ance in this life, vast consolations for the future, and pretty much 
everything that means culture, refinement, and civilization. In 
very early days, before Mikadoism in Japan was formulated into 
a militant dogma, the islanders and the peninsulars, the Japanese 
and the Coreans, were virtually one and the same people, and in 
about the same stage of civilization. In the reaction of nature 



cho-sen: a province of japan. 511 

upon man and of man upon nature, during ten centuries, the two 
peoples were differentiated, and the two languages — almost ex- 
actly the same in structure, thus proving their common origin — 
developed their vocabulary and local pronunciation. The two 
nations, according to their ethnic mixtures, heredity and environ- 
ment, grew further and further apart. Nevertheless, to-day, after 
a millennium of separation, the underlying elements are so much 
greater than the surface differences that the prospects of an amal- 
gamation of the two peoples are decidedly promising. 

In the main, the, history of Corea is like its landscape. Her 
political annals, as thus far studied, seem like monotonous under- 
growth among which loom indistinct figure-heads. As bare as her 
desolated coast or denuded mountains, the scene in historic per- 
spective reminds one of the peninsula's lava beds, her square leagues 
of disintegrated granite, or her waste lands, out of which rise sculpt- 
ured rocks, and whence emerge the Miryeks, or stone colossi, amid 
ruins surrounded with forests. To a native scholar his nation's 
chronicles are not without a rugged grandeur of their own, besides 
a rich coloring that recalls the rock-scenery of Corea when looked 
at in the sunlight. 

To the alien student. Buddhism looms as the chief civilizer 
and the mother of popular culture. It is certain that during its 
thousand years of growth and prosperity in the peninsula the 
people were as one flock led by one shepherd. They were trained 
in what was at least beautiful and human. Corea's debt to Budd- 
hism is unspeakable. Even to-day, in the land so often invaded, 
desolated, peeled, and scraped by Tartar, Chinese, and Japanese 
marauders, and raided by men from countries called Christian, 
almost everything that remains to touch the imagination, whether 
in architecture, rock sculpture, stone colossus, pagoda, in art, and 
even in literature, apart from erudition, is of Buddhist origin. 

When, after a.d. 1392, the popular faith was banned, its tem- 
ples, schools, monasteries, and works of art destroyed or doomed 
to decay, its priesthood socially outlawed and oppressed even to 
beggary, the people were left to ignorance and superstition and 
were as sheep without shepherds. They became the prey alike of 
the ruling classes and of sorcerers and fortune-tellers, who, though 
densely ignorant, lived by their wits and wickedness. Parasitic 



512 COREA. 

spoilers of all sorts, from the palace to the hovel, thrived, while 
the people, the foundation of the state, existed on life's narrowest 
margins. Confucianism, as made into a state ritual since 1392, 
and as interpreted and developed by the yang-ban, or educated 
and office-holding classes, meant neglect of the land, the grinding 
of the people's faces, the permanent destruction of popular wealth 
and comfort, the paralysis of the motives to industry, and the cre- 
ation of a standing army of inquisitors, office-seekers, and office- 
holders, and their satellites and hangers-on, with headquarters in 
Seoul. In place of the spiritual bread of Buddhism, the new 
regime offered a stone. In government, instead of the egg for 
nourishment, they proffered a scorpion — even chronic extortion. 
A great gulf was fixed socially between the men to whom educa- 
tion meant the stifling of original thought, a ban on mental initiative 
and the oppression of the people. Monopoly of office and privilege, 
as held by one class, meant systematic robbery of the populace, 
the Government itself being an engine of oppression by which 
fewer than one-quarter million yang-ban subsisted upon eleven 
million of the common folk. 

When reform was called for which meant public benefit, 
apart from private rapine or individual advantage, manual as well 
as clerkly labor, continuous and unselfish toil with only slight 
pecuniary reward, the average high-class native proved a total 
failure. Despite the purging from the palace of several hundred 
women, and over a thousand male persons who drew salaries, the 
remainder within, or parasitic to royalty, proved worthless for the 
remaking of the nation. 

Ever under the spell of the Chinese characters, saturated with 
the ideas of Confucianism run to seed, having only one ideal of 
life — selfish advantage and the ;^ubordi nation of the lower classes — 
devoted to their sensual enjoyments, their long pipes, and their 
liquor, to check er-playmg, gossip, and elaborate idleness, the yang- 
ban during five centuries did nothing to develop the soil or the 
resources of the country. On the contrary, the office-holding class 
systematically hindered the development of wealth, or even thrift, 
by extortion, unjust taxes, and dishonest manipulation of imposts, 
which were paid in kind instead of in coin, by exactions or. forced 
loans never repaid — usually under the menace and reality of beat- 



cho-sen: a province of japan. 513 

ing, torture, and imprisonment. One innovation under the Jap- 
anese rule, which made taxes payable in cash and not in kind, 
wrought infinite blessing to the people and carried consternation 
to the army of extortioners. 

In the modern world-life, Japan and Corea are as necessary to 
each other as are man and woman. It soon became evident to the 
Tokio Government, after every step, that some stronger remedy 
than advice would be necessary to heal the age-old and deep-seated 
Corean disease that seemed as incurable as leprosy. Hence the 
measures of 1907, which put into the hands of the Mikado's Resi- 
dent-General still greater powers. 

To this work of reforming Corea, Nippon gave her ablest son, 
one who, both in feudal and constitutional Japan, had dedicated 
his life to promoting the evolution of the modern man. The 
statesmanship of Ito was that of a lover of humanity, who might 
well, after long and multifarious labors, have taken the rest which 
he craved and which his physical condition demanded. Never- 
theless, with his unique experience and amazing abilities, he ap- 
plied himself with unremitting toil to lead the once hermit nation 
into the twentieth century. According to Ito's motto, "The secret 
of statesmanship consists in securing the contentment of the people." 
He was all the better fitted for his colossal task by having known 
so well the late feudal Nippon with its political diseases. Neglect 
of the people and of the soil, oflficial falsehood, and class oppression 
were characteristic of both countries. Ito took all the more en- 
couragement because life in Cho-sen was but the mirror of that 
in old Japan. Having fought belated feudalism and grappled 
with the new problems of a modern state in Asia, none was better 
equipped than he for the task of making a progressive nation out 
of a people whose mental eyes were set even further back in their 
heads than those of the Chinese. 

For while China boasts of Confucius, Corea penetrates further 
into the primitive. She hails as the founder of her social order, 
Kija (Ki-Tsze, or Kishi, pp. 11-15), the distant ancestor of the 
Chinese sage. On this nursery fairy tale of the nation — since the 
peninsulars knew nothing of writing until, long after the Christian 
era, they obtained the Chinese ideographs — every Corean for a 
thousand years or more has been brought up. The early myth- 



514 COREA. 

ology and legend of the peninsulars are about as trustworthy as 
those of the neighboring islanders, whose conceit of antiquity was 
once fully as great and whose official and orthodox chronology was 
fixed and published so long ago as a.d. 1872! 

This myth of Kija, as the actual founder of civilization east of 
the Yalu, took its literary form only in the eighth century, when 
the Coreans had become saturated with Chinese ideas. Then the 
peninsulars, made acquainted with Chinese historiography, and 
having but one model before them, faithfully followed it (as did 
the Japanese also), the Coreans surpassing even the greater nation 
in pride of antiquity and in the glorification of heroes, who loom up 
in vaster proportions according as the unrecorded centuries mul- 
tiply and recede into the past. Historical science has already be- 
gun to change this perspective of antiquity as surely as hospitals 
have furnished object-lessons in the law of cause and effect. Corean 
gods and demons, more numerous even than old Japan's mythical 
menagerie and pantheon, are being steadily banished to the realms 
of fairy-land.* 

Ito, scorning delights and living laborious days, continued the 
labors, but vastly enlarged the plans of his predecessors. First of 
all, having deported hundreds of the bad subjects of the Mikado 
and curbed the rapacity and brutality of his own countrymen, he 
applied himself unceasingly to healing the wounds of war, to in- 
demnifying the unjustly impoverished natives, and to giving Corea 
what she never had — or, if possessed of, had allowed to lapse 
during the five hundred years of the dynasty that had destroyed 
the people's religion and had done nothing for national develop- 
ment. A system of good roads, honest coinage and currency, courts 
and justice, popular education, afforestation of the mountains, im- 
provement of the soil through scientific agriculture and reclama- 
tion of waste land, preventive hygiene, honest taxation and col- 
lection now exists. Ito cleansed the palace, separating the functions 
of Court and Government, lessening by fifty per cent, the number 
of persons paid from the public treasury, both male and female, 
removing as far as possible the king and his advisers from the 
great mob of sorcerers, fortune-tellers, geomancers, and others who 

1 See " The Unmannerly Tiger and Other Korean Fairy Tales," by W. E. 
Griffis. New York, 1911. 



cho-sen: a province of japan. 515 

prey upon the Corean people. The deposition of the incompetent 
emperor and the installation of his son in power were followed by 
the education of the crown prmce in Tokio. 

The difficulties in the way of reform were appalling. The 
principal obstacles existed in the two classes of which Corean 
society is composed — oppressors and oppressed. The yang-ban, or 
privileged men, with more or less scholarship of a Chinese kind, 
seemed to have no conception of patriotism apart from pelf. Their 
chief trait was political vampirism. On the other hand, the supine 
attitude of the common people, accustomed for centuries to syste- 
matic oppression, was discouraging. To them even decent govern- 
ment, that is, the kind which could be tolerated to the point of 
rebellion, meant the grace of their masters and rule without rob- 
bery. One of the striking features of nearly every Corean town or 
city is seen in the long rows of tablets in stone or iron that celebrate 
the merits of "good," that is, fairly decent, governors. A collec- 
tion of all the local instruments of torture, stacked in one museum, 
would be impressive and furnish fuel for a vast conflagration. 

In education, progress was hampered by the general prevalence 
of fanaticism on the subject of "race suicide" and in the absurd 
measures taken for its pi'evention — measures that largely tend to 
hinder the end in view. In Corea the marriage and birth rate may 
possibly be in excess of that of any country in the world, while, 
almost as matter of course, and as a scientific corollary, the same 
may be said of the death rate, which, owing to superstition, 
ignorance, and dirt, is appalling. Corea, despite shining white 
clothes, is not a land of bath-tubs. In the schools, nearly all the 
boys were found to be married, and to girls older than themselves. 
These over-mature youths, of antediluvian frame of mind, too 
often seem to have eyes set too far back in their heads, which fix 
their gaze on duties appropriate to the time of Confucius rather 
than of the twentieth century. 

We have glanced at this subject before. Yet even to-day, with 
all the advantages afforded them, there is danger. Expecting, like 
their fathers before them, to be verse-makers, to quote from the 
ancient Chinese, to be literary, and to hold office, because of a 
knowledge of the characters, the young Corean yang-ban are indif- 
ferent to useful progress and scorn manual labor. Having already 



516 COREA. 

lost nearly everything, they will, unless radically changed in mind, 
lose all. The one hope of Cho-sen is the raising up in a generation, 
now under new influences, of a new type of: humanity. The 
Christian schools and churches are supplying this need. 

Indeed, the fall of yang-banism and the extinction of Corea's 
sovereignty means Buddhism's opportunity. It will be both logi- 
cal and natural that one of the first effects of Christian missions 
will be, as in Japan, to quicken the spirit and improve the form 
and power of the older religion. Nor ought missionaries fear its 
vigorous competition, should it become potent for the abolition of 
demon-worship and the moral uplift of the masses otherwise neg- 
lected, especially in out-of-the-way places. 

Unfortunately, Corea of mediaeval mind, like barbarous Japan 
of not so many years ago, sought a remedy for supposed wrongs in 
assassination. Rashly unintelligent, sword and bullet were resorted 
to in order to stop the car of progress. Quick to misjudge and im- 
patient to wait for results, the assassin selected as his first victims 
his country's best friends. The weak and disappointed tried sui- 
cide as a remedy and deterrent. The insurgents in the so-called 
Righteous Army, too often were robbers of their own people. In 
the name of patriotism they attempted redress, seeking to turn 
back "modern civilization which rides on a powder cart." The 
list of Coreans who in cowardice or discouragement died by their 
own hands, who were slaughtered by their own compatriots, who 
fell beneath the bullets or the swords of rebels in civil strife, or 
who were mown down by the resistless fire of the Japanese in- 
fantry, is sadly great. ^ 

The Mikado's soldiers were perhaps frequently unable to dis- 
tinguish between the deserving and the undeserving. Their actions 
are not absolutely free from criticism. Yet with unrestrained 
frankness the statistics of the military operations are given in the 
Annual Reports on Reforms and Progress in Korea, in 1907, 1908-9, 
and 1909-10. From July, 1907, when the riots broke out in Seoul, 
on account of the disbanding of the Corean army, to the end of 1908, 
there were of Japanese soldiers 179 killed and 277 wounded, besides 
67 Japanese residents killed in 1907 and 16 in 1908. Of Corean 

» See also " The Tragedy of Korea," by H. A. McKenzie, London, 1908. 



cho-sen: a province of japan. 517 

insurgents, 14,566 were '^killed." Besides positive military meas- 
ures, the Corean Emperor's rescripts urging those in arms to sub- 
mit quietly were effective, and the total of those who surrendered 
and were pardoned to December 13, 1907, was 8,728. During the 
fiscal year 1909 the Japanese lost 38 men, but the number of in- 
surgents killed (3,001), wounded, captured, or surrendered was 
6,131. Those in arms who yielded or asked pardon were given 
employment in road-making and other useful occupations. By 
1911, most of the activity of native insurgent bands had degenerated 
into the work of mere banditti. Military movements on a large 
scale were not required, and much of the desolation of villages was 
repaired with better hope of more comfortable existence. Fright- 
ful as is this frank showing, it is doubtful whether more lives were 
lost in the suppression of rebellion, from 1907 to 1911, than in the 
nearly chronic anarchy that prevailed in the southern provinces 
during the previous decade and a half. 

The Annual Reports above referred to show by text, pictures, 
and statistics, not only the purpose and results of the Japanese 
Government, but also the fearful cost of restoring order, a cost of 
life and treasure aggravated both by natives who have not scrupled 
to use the torch, the mulct, and the assassin*s weapon on their own 
native soil, and by foreigners who, in the name of liberty, abused 
the freedom of the press and kept the useless and dangerous 
embers of sedition in a flame. Not satisfied with murder at home, 
Coreans have made the United States, already the happy hunting 
ground of the Black Hand and the lyncher, the arena of their 
cowardly exploits. 

After Mr. Durham White Stevens, an American of long experi- 
ence in the Far East, and Diplomatic Adviser to the Corean Gov- 
ernment, had been shot and killed in San Francisco by a Corean, 
the most shining mark was Corea's best friend, Ito. Made a 
prince and rewarded with every mark of honor possible to a sub- 
ject by the Emperor of Japan, this man who, in unquailing dis- 
charge of his duty, had already braved the Japanese feudal sword 
wielded by cowards in Choshiu, and the infuriated Tokio mob in 
constitutional Japan, and who seemed immune from the assassins 
of which old Japan raised such a luxuriant crop, fell in Manchuria 
at the Harbin railway station, on October 26, 1909, before the 



518 COREA. 

bullets of the petty revenger, who shot from behind. Amid the 
grief and the honor of the whole world, on November 4, 1909, 
Ito was given a State funeral such as has been bestowed upon few 
subjects of Japan. Ito shed his blood in the cause of peace. 
Whether these assassinations hastened the absorption of Corea by 
Japan, and the blotting out of a sovereignty unknown to the world 
until Japan, by peaceful diplomacy, conferred it in 1876, is not 
kno^Ti. The Emperor at once appointed General Viscount 
Terauchi, then Minister of War, and already famous for his brilliant 
military record and notable organizing abilities, to be the successor 
of Ito in Corea. The record for energetic action, consummate tact, 
and ceaseless toil already made by Terauchi places his name very 
near that of Ito as a modern civilizer and lover of the victories of 
peace even more than those of war. 

Despite all the instances of individual wrong, private injustices, 
and public mistakes made by the Japanese in Corea, and in view 
of the severe criticisms of Terauchi by such leading Japanese news- 
papers as the Kokumin and Kochi, it is nevertheless manifest that the 
policy of the Tokio Government is antipodal ly the reverse of that 
of Hid6yoshi. Instead of the Ear-tomb, and the scooping of Corea 
clean of her artists, artisans, potters, and art treasures, there rise 
to-day the school, the hospital, and the temples of justice and fi- 
nance. Plans are being perfected for the development of the soil 
and of the wealth of the nation, in the interest of the people, while 
to the missionary and alien philanthropist is given all encourage- 
ment. A new land survey is in operation for the equalization of 
taxes. Light-houses have reduced the dangers of a foggy and 
treacherous coast. Harbor works are in course of construction; 
well-made common roads are decreasing the difficulty of transport; 
while these and the highways of steel continually increase the value 
of the arable lands and of town lots. Rivers, even the wide Yalu 
and Han, are spanned by bridges. Many a place, historic because 
of war, is now famous for its commercial and industrial devel- 
opment. Piracy gives way before policemen in steam launches, 
and chronic brigandage is dying out. In all that relates directly 
to humanity, the reform of the judiciary methods of justice, prison 
procedure, the codification of laws, etc., the progress is marvellous. 
At the head of the judicial department is a Christian, Judge Wata- 



cho-sen: a province of japan. 519 

nabe, and many men of this faith, Japanese and Corean, fill other 
high offices. Special schools, of medicine, surgery, nursing, scien- 
tific agriculture, forestry, live-stock improvement and manual 
training, are preparing young men and women to raise the standard 
of human life in Cho-sen and to reclaim the sixty-six per cent, of 
the arable land in the peninsula which has lain waste. 

The absorption of Corea by Japan has given the astonishingly 
successful Christian missionary work a new environment, and one 
for the better, despite the manifest dangers of misunderstanding 
arising temporarily from the political situation and the eager read- 
iness of a few Japanese press correspondents to misrepresent. 
With full religious liberty, and under the protection of a firm, 
orderly, and impartial government, the great work of raising up 
the new type of man and woman in Cho-sen, now one of the most 
promising of mission fields, proceeds. In the Christian household, 
numbering roughly about 200,000, we discern the best promise for 
Cho-sen's future. Into his new world of hope and cheer, the 
native, when enlightened and converted, brings the richest inheri- 
tances of the national culture, the best results of his training, and 
the most winning traits of his character. This is strikingly shown 
in the general eagerness to read and study the Holy Scriptures, in 
the wonderful powers of memory, and in the committing of large 
portions of the Bible, which is now accessible in the vernacular. 
The native's generosity, good-nature, power of self-support, mutual 
desire and practice of helpfulness, patience, and power to endure 
persecution of any and all sorts fit him admirably for Christian 
service. 

Christianity has come to Corea to reveal the national treasures 
that are enduring. For centuries the beautiful phonetic alphabet, 
en-mun, and syllabary Nido (p. 47), lay neglected and scorned by 
the learned. Yet this was but one of many elements of potency 
for good that lay unused like barren rocks. At the smiting of the 
missionaries' hand of faith gushed forth the waters of life and heal- 
ing. The new messages of hope and salvation came to the people 
not only in their own tongue, but in their own script. Christian 
teachers, after long years of discouragement, have made, through 
the patience of hope, of love and sympathy, a real conquest of the 
Corean heart. The faces of men and women are lighted up with 



520 COREA. 

a new glow of interest in life here and hereafter as they find both 
body and soul niinistered to by their friends from afar. With this 
spiritual invitation and challenge to enter into the promised land 
fully accepted by the Coreans, it is not too wild a dream to imagine 
even the strong conqueror conquered by the w^eaker. Samson's 
experience and his riddle may be the Corean's. Cho-sen may yet 
be to Nippon what Palestine was to Greece and Rome. Bereft of 
political sovereignty, from the land of the Hebrews went forth that 
salvation which "is of the Jews " to conquer Europe and the world. 
Already, by closer contact of the humbler classes of the two nations 
on Corean soil, the paganism of rustic Japan — hitherto almost un- 
touched by the gospel — begins to disintegrate and ferment because 
of the leaven brought from Christian Cho-sen. This has the Corean 
left — and perhaps more abundantly than ever before — "power to 
become'' the spiritual regenerator of Japan. 



INDEX 



Aboeigines, 11, 34 

Adams, Arthur, 4 

Adams, Will, 168, i^*^ 

Adoption, 259, 260 

Agriculture, 198, 298, 443-447 

Ai-chiu, 8, 180, 348, 364, 365. See 

Wiju. 
Allen, Horace N., 468, 470, 490 
Alligators, 198 
Alphabets, 38, 47, 67 
Amana, 31 
American Relations with Corea, 388- 

419, 428, 429, 431,. 434, 435, 

459-462 
Americans in Seoul, 461 
An-am, 117 

Ancestor-worship, 78, 328, 351 
Ancestral tablets, 78, 351 
Angell, Hon. J. B., 430 
Arabs in Corea, 1, 2, 48, 69 
Archery, 151, 293, 164 
Archipelago of Corea, 4 
Architecture, 135, 136, 262 
Area of Corea, 3, 447 
Armor, 58, 101, 102, 125, 153 
Arms, 58, 101, 102, 140. See Sword. 
Art, 1, 33, 48, 220, 331, 264, 300-304, 

330 
Asiatic Society, 460, 461 
Ashikaga, 85, 86, 127, 330 
Arthur, President, 460 
Aston, Mr. W. G., 338, 460, 464 
Austin, Don. See Konishi. 

Baiji. See Hiaksai. 
Barbara Taylor, The, 424 
Bears, 294 
Beds, 263 

Belcher, Captain Edward, 366 
Bellonet, Mons., 377, 386 
Bernadou, I. G., 460, 467 
Berneaux, Bishop, 372-373 
Bianca Portia, The, 428 
Bingham, Hon. J., 430 



Birds, 7, 195 

Blake, Com. Homer C, 409, 412 

Boats, 75, 195, 365, 368 

Bombs, 112, 372 

Books, 67, 220, 491 

Border Gate, 83, 158, 180, 364 

Boxers, 474, 489, 490 

Bridges, 258, 285, 486 

Broughton, Captain, 203, 214 

Brown, McLeavy, 470, 487 

Buddhism, 35, 39, 66, 67, 80, 81, 96, 

154, 330-334, 337-338, 473 
Buddhist priests, 36, 65, 332-333, 

485 
Budget, 454 
Burial, 278-279 

Cabinet, 480, 484 

Calendar, 489 

Card playing, 295, 369 

Caricatures, 228-229 

Cattle, 7, 198, 201, 354, 364 

Ceramic art, 149, 200, 264 

Cespedes, 121-124 

Chamberlain, Mr. Basil Hall, 59 

Chemulpo, 429, 439, 467, 476, 495 

China, The, 396-402 

Chin-chiu, 124, 125 

Chinese in Corea, 462-468, 475-478 

Chin Ikei, 109, 118, 124, 128 

Chinnampo, 455 

Chino- Japanese war, 471-478 

Civilization, 447, 451, 452 

Cholera, 309 

Choi, 473, 474 

Chosan harbor, 203 

Christianity, Roman, 93, 121-123, 

124-128, 347-376, 413, 442, 469 
Christianity, Reformed, 450, 451, 

457, 468, 491, 492 
Chulla-do, 197-201 
Church and State, 472 
Chrysanthemum, 298 
Cleveland, President, 470 

521 



522 



INDEX. 



Climate, 5, 6, 172 

Clocks, 136, 344 

Coins, 10, 18, 34, 69, 425, 479 

Comets, 173, 175 

Compass. See Magnetic Needle. 

Confucianism, 80, 81, 327-330, 344, 

347, 473 
Corea a Japanese Protectorate, 497- 

506 
Corea and Japan, 476, 489, 495 
Corea-Manchurian frontier, 156, 157, 

494 
Coreans in China, 44, 48, 160, 432 
Coreans in Japan, 38, 39, 60, 61, 423, 

427, 432, 459 
Coreans in Russia, 212-213, 220 
Coria, 85 
Cossacks, 494 
Costume, 81, 273-276 
Cotton, 153, 444, 456 
Coup d'etat, 463-468 
Cowan, Dr. Frank, 427 
Coxingo, 162 
Cremation, 278 
Currency, 454 

Dagelet Island, 110, 206 

Dalny, 496 

Dan Kun, 12, 308 

Decorations, 453, 454 

Diet, 267, 268 

Dinners, 268, 464 

Dogs, 52, 54, 267, 304, 468 

Dragon, 301, 302 

Don Austin. See Konishi. 

Dutch. See Hollanders. 

Ear-monument, 133, 144 
Education, 337-344, 444, 445, 479 
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 388 
Embassies from Japan, 1, 58, 89-93 
Embassies to Japan, 60, 82, 85, 92, 

126, 149, 423, 427, 432 
Embassy to United States, 459, 460 
Emigration, 491 
Emperor of Corea, 487 
Empire of Corea, 479, 487, 495 
Etas, 61, 118, 334 
Ethics, 329, 360, 376 
Examinations for Civil Service, 339, 

341-343 

Fairs, 166, 181, 215, 364-365 

Falcons, 76, 323 

Fans, 275, 298 

Famine, 58, 118 

Farmers, 443-447 

Fauna, 7, 195, 197, 198, 206 



Feng-shuey. See Pung-sui. 

Feng-Wang Chang, 180, 496 

Feron, the priest, 370, 376 

Festivals, 295-299 

Feudalism, 22, 23, 41, 43, 237-241 

Fire-arms, 84, 93, 102, 112 

Fire-signals, 74, 185, 350, 369 

Fish, 215, 257, 267, 270 

Flags, 320, 332, 368 

Flora, 195, 381 

Flying Fish, H.B.M.S., 440 

Folk-lore, 281-283, 308-316 

Food, 267-271, 448 

Foote, Lucius H., 459, 460, 464 

Foulke, Ensign, 460, 462, 463 

France, 363-364, 368, 426, 436 

Franciscans, 72 

French, 165, 361-386, 469 

Frois, Louis, 95 

Frontiers, 82, 383, 421, 494, 496 

Froez. See Frois. 

Fuku-Shin, 37 

Funerals, 278, 373 

Fusan, 8, 85, 100, 149, 150, 164, 203» 

203, 354, 371, 425-426 
Fusan- Seoul railway, 449, 496 
Fuyu people, 19, 21-24, 29 

Gambling, 295 

Genghis Khan, 71. See YoshitsuwX 

General Sherman, The, 183, 380 

Gensan, 214, 426, 427 

Germans in Corea, 461 

Gillie, Rev., 391 

Ginger, 2, 267 

Ginseng, 2, 163, 388, 389, 461 

Glass, 265, 391, 426 

Gold, 2, 182, 289, 388, 425, 427 

Grave fights, 446 

Guilds, 463 

Gutzlaff, 194, 359 

Hachiman, 133 

Hair-dressing, 159, 160, 270-271 

Haimi, 375 

Hall, Captain Basil, 186, 197 

Hamel, Hendrik, 169-176, 460 

Hanabusa, 429, 438-440 

Han dynasty, 16, 19 

Han River, 187, 188, 367, 378, 380^. 

476, 486 
Han Yang. See Seoul. 
Hats, 271, 272 
Hayes, Mr. A. A., Jr., 402 
Head-dresses, 159, 273 
Hiaksai, 26, 35-39 
Hideyori, 125 n 



INDEX. 



523 



Hideyoshi, 87, 88-94, 96, 98, 144 
Hoang-hai. See Whang-hai. 
Hollanders, 157, 1C2, 167-176, 460 
Horaio, 38 

Horses, 7, 198, 201, 332, 385 
Hosho, 36, 37 
Hoskyn, Captain, 440 
Hospitality, 288, 368, 391, 405 
Houses, 31, 33, 262, 265, 282, 355 
Housekeeping, 262-270 
Hulbert, Homer B., 468 
Human sacrifices, 82 
Hunters, 294, 323 

Ice, 6, 268 

IgnatieflF, General, 370, 371 

Iki Island, 72 

Irabert, Bishop, 362 

Imperialism, 487, 489 

In-chiun, 429, 431, 434, 436, 439 

Independence Arch, 486 

Independence Club, 486 

Inouye Bunda (Count), 422, 423, 

479-481 
Ireland, 9 
Iron, 218, 380 

Islands, 191, 197, 200, 201, 203 
Italians, 428 
Ito, Marquis, 467, 478 
lyeyasu, 146, 148 

Japanese, 24, 75, 163, 496 
Japanese in Corea, 444, 449, 493 
Japanese pirates, 74, 84, 91, 92 
Jesuits, 162, 165, 376, 401 
Jingu Kogo, 45, 54, 89 
Jinsen. See In-chiun and chemulpo. 
JuUa-do. See Chulla-do. 

Kaichow, 65 

Kang-hoa. See Kang-wa. 

Kang-wa Island, 72, 191, 372, 381, 

410, 423 
Kaokuli. See Kokorai. 
Karakuni, 59 
Kasiwade, 58, 59 
Kato Kiyomasa, 96, 97, 103, 105, 

110, 113, 114 
Khordadbeh, 2 
Khublai Khan, 73 
Kija. See Ki Tsze. 
Kim clan, 458 
Kim Ok Kiun, 464-466, 475 
King-ki-tao. See Seoul. 
Kioto, 92, 330 
Kirin, 303 
Kishi. See Ki Tsze. 



Kitans, 67, 68 

Ki Tsze (Kija), 11, 12-15, 76, 362, 

488 
Kiushiu, 57, 406 
Klaproth, 458 
Kokorai, 23-26, 56 
Kokun Island, 368, 369 
Kokwa. See Kang-ioa. 
Kondera. See Kuroda. 
Konishi Yukinaga, 96, 97, 102, 103, 

105, 109, 111, 112, 119, 127, 146 
Korai, 19, 26-29, 34, 65-69, 76, 429 
Korea Review, 491 
Korean Asiatic Society, 460, 461, 

491 
Kow Shing, 476 
Kudara. See Hiaksai. 
Kung, Prince, 377 
Kunsan, 455 
Kurino, Mr., 494 
Kuroda, 97, 106 
Kuroda Kiyotaku, 422 
Kuroki, 494 
Kuropatkin, 496 

Lake Baikal, 65, 67 

Lake Hanka, 65 

Lamsdorf, Count, 494 

Land, 444-448 

Land owners, 444 

Language, 51, 123 

La Perouse, 174, 350 

Lazareff, Port, 214, 428 

Liao Tung, 42, 74, 180. See Shing- 

king. 
Liao Yang, 496 
Liquors, 266, 463 
Literary examinations, 81, 339, 341- 

343 
Literary style, 34 
Li Hung Chang, 182, 421, 430, 441, 

467, 471 
Li-yu-son, 111, 117, 156 
Loo Choo. See Biu Kiu. 
Looking-glass, story of a, 315 
Lotus, 136, 331 

Low, F. F., Minister, 403-405, 408 
Lowell, Percival, 460 

Magnetic needle, 69, 84 
Ma-han, 31, 32 
Manchius, 154-160, 367, 421 
Manchuria, 8, 83, 371, 494-496. See 

Shing King. 
Manchusri, 154 
McCartee, Dr. D. B., 338 
McCaslin, Captain, 391 



524 



INDEX. 



McKee, Lieutenant, 416, 418 

McKinley. President, 453 

Maps, 162, 165, 367 

Meals, 264 

Military character, 42, 43, 325, 416 

Mile-stones, 285 

Min clan, 459 

Min Yong Ik, 460, 463, 465-468, 470 

Ming dynasty, 77, 78, 81, 83, 85, 156 

Minra, 481, 482 

Mokpo, 455 

Mollendorf, Herr von, 467, 470 

Monasteries, 333, 384 

Mongols, 70-75 

Mongolia, 8 

Monocacy, U. S. S., 406-409, 412- 

414, 459, 460 
Monuments, 160, 279, 437 
Mori Arinori, 422 
Mountains, 5, 189, 203, 206 
Mourning, 277-282 
Music, 292, 293, 424 
Musselmans. See Arals. 

Nagasaki, 123, 149, 150, 162, 175, 
205, 370, 398, 408, 440 

Nai-po, 193, 349, 352, 375 

Nak-tong River, 5, 164, 202, 203 

Names, 165, 261, 348 

Nanking, 40, 48, 69 

Nan-on, 130-133 

National anthem, 490 

National emblems, 452 

National flower, 452 

Nature, 207, 340, 378 

Naval battles, 108, 129, 130, 134 

Neutral strip, 7, 8, 84, 156, 182, 421, 
494 

Newspapers, 486 

New Year's Day, 1, 111, 297, 461 

Nido syllabary, 47, 67 

Niijun. See Ninchi. 

Ninchi, 68 

Ningpo, 69, 84 

Nin-sen. See In-chiun. 

Nippon Machi, 164 

Ni Taijo, 76, 78, 79 

Nose, the history of a, 311 

Noses, 171, 317 

Nuns, 59, 335 

Nye, Hon. Gideon, 389 

Ogawuchi, 133, 139-144 
Ojin, 55 

Oppert, Ernest, 375, 392 
Ouen-san. See Oensan. 



Pagodas, 32, 383 

Pak Yong Hio, 464, 481 

Palladius, 68, 83, 237 

Paper, 153, 263, 265 

Parkes, Sir Harry, 435, 461 

Patriotism, 451, 479 

Pears, 32, 268 

Peasantry, 447 

Persecuting nations, 472 

Petitions to the king, 82, 222, 431, 

474 
Petsi. See Hiaksai. 
Pheasants, 32, 60 
Philosophy, 472, 473 
Phoenix, 304 

Phonetic writing, 38, 47, 48 
Ping-an city, 21, 65, 105, 106, 109, 

112, 182, 183, 392-395, 477, 478 
Ping-an Province, 179-183 
Pipes, 253, 369 
Poetry, 59, 297, 344 
Political parties, 224-229, 356, 362, 

429 
Polo, Marco, 72, 73 
Polo, game of, 427 
Population, 281, 448 
Porcelain, 2, 264 
Port Arthur, 478, 495, 496 
Port Hamilton, 469 
Port Lazareff, 214 
Portuguese, 2, 84, 354 
Postal Service, 452 
Potters, 146, 174, 359 
Pratt, Hon. Zadoc, 390 
Prefectures, 480 
Primogeniture, 260 
Prince Jerome Gulf, 194, 398 
Printing, 67, 369 
Proverbs, 317-319 
Provinces, 80, 179-217 
Puhai, 64, 65 
Pung-sui, 278, 279, 328 

Queen Mm, 421, 438, 480-482 
Quelpart, 4, 200, 370, 428 

Railways, 448, 486, 496 

Rain, 306, 359, 437, 439 

Religion, 326-335 

Revenge, 227 

Revenue, 454 

Rice, 268, 298, 437, 444 

Riots, 438, 467 

Richthofen, 2 

Ridel, Bishop, 372, 375, 378, 413 

Rin Yin River, 104, 105, 190 

Ri Seiki. See Ni Taijo. 



INDEX. 



525 



Eiu Kiu, 91, 146, 426 

Roads, 202, 284, 413 

Rodgers, Admiral John, 13, 403-406, 

408, 418 
Rona, The, 375 
Ross, Rev. John, 22 
Roze, Admiral, 376-386 
Roze Island, 379, 439 
Russians, 162, 163, 205, 210, 371, 

428, 469, 484, 487, 488, 492, 

494-496 

Sacrifices, 329, 454 

Saghalin, 492 

Saigo, 420, 425 

Sam-han, 30, 34, 487 

Sanskrit, 334 

Sargent, Senator, 428 

Saris, 147 

Satehiko, 59 

Schall, Adam, 160 

Schools, 343 

Seal of state, 218, 373 

Seoul, 79, 85, 104, 115, 158, 163, 164, 

189-190, 220, 223, 341, 436-441, 

485, 486 
Seoul- Fusan railway, 449, 496 
Serfdom, 23, 237-243 
Serpents, 305 
Shamanism, 326 
Shang-chiu, 102, 164, 203 
Shang-ti, 327 
Shangtung, 2, 3, 74 
Shan-yan mountains, 213 
Shaw, Captain Samuel, 389 
Shimonoseki, 53, 420, 440, 478 
Shing-king, 3, 180, 353, 361, 364, 421 
Shin-han, 32, 33 
Shinra, 33, 45-49, 135 
Shoes, 276 
Shufeldt, Com. R. W., 186, 428, 435, 

459 
Singing-girls, 90, 291 
Sinlo. See Shinra. 
Slavery. See Serfdom. 
Snow, 6, 207, 324 
Songchin, 455, 456 
Sorceresses, 445, 446, 462 
Sorio. See Nippon Machi and Fusan. 
Spear, Rev. Wm., 389 
Spelling, 338 
Spies, 122 

Spirits of the air, 327 
Stockbridge, 388 
Straits of Corea, 174, 494 
Straw men, 383 
Students sent abroad. 459 



Succession to throne, 223 

Sungari River, 20, 371 

Sunto, 66, 77. See Kai-seng. 

Superstitions, 445, 470 

Surprise, The, 391 

Susanoo, 51 

Suyematz, Mr. K., 71 

Swords, 116, 149, 382 

Syllabary, 67, 338. See Alphabet. 

Tablets, 460, 489 

Tai-in, or Tai-on Kun. See Tai-wen 

Kun. 
Taiko Sama. See Hideyoshi. 
Tai-wen Kun, 230, 373, 380, 420, 437. 

458, 459, 467, 476, 482 
Tang Dynasty, 36, 37, 47 
Taxation, 447 
Tea, 267, 389 
Telegraphs, 461 
Temples, 331, 334, 336, 485 
Theatre, 291 
"The" Corea, 3 
Thibet, 2, 318 
Thomas, Rev., 391 
Throne, 52, 219 
Timber concession, 490, 494 
Tien-tsin massacre, 386, 418 
Tigers, 59, 135, 301, 320-325, 455 
Tobacco, 151, 152, 366 
Togo, Admiral, 476, 495 
Tokio, 420, 424, 427, 440, 461 
Tombs, 279, 297, 392, 396, 399 
Tong-haks, 445, 473-475, 480 
Tong Nai, 100, 203, 371, 428 
Torai fu. See Tong Nai. 
Tortoise, 218, 303 
Torture, 234, 352, 375 
Translations into Corean, 349, 430 
Tribute, 58, 159, 160 
Tsuruga, 53, 54 
Tsushima, 85, 86, 150, 151, 164, 205 

492 
Tycoon, 149, 380 
Types, 67, 434 

Unmun, 67 
Unyo Kuan, 422 
Uru-san, 137-144 

Varnish, 189 

Vettor Pisani, The, 428 

Village idols, 285 

Vincent, 122, 123 

Vladivostok, 495 

Von Brandt, Minister, 405 

Von Siebold, 150 



526 



INDEX. 



Wall of stakes, 84, 182 

Wang-ken, 65 

Weigatz, 85 

Wei-man, 16 

Whales, 215, 488 

Whang-hai, 183-187 

Whang-ti, 41, 92, 159, 423 

Wiju, 491, 495 

Williams, Hon. S. Wells, 394, 403, 

Wishes, the three, 310 

Wood-cutters, 180, 494 



Xavieb, 60 

Yalu River, 179, 485, 495 

Yangban, 443, 450 

Yasuhiro, 89, 90 

Yedo, 151, See ToUo. 

Yongampo, 455, 490 

Yoshitsung, 71, 164 

Yuan Shi Kai, 461, 465-468, 469, 

470, 471, 475 
Yule, Colonel H., 72 



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